Pokémon: Christopher and Naomi
by Christopher Kamori
Summary: Christopher Kamori, a former assistant for Professor Birch, embarks on a Pokémon journey. Early on, he saves a Ralts named Naomi from certain death, and the two now travel the world. Meanwhile, various evil teams wage war to rule the world. This story is rated T for violence, mild language, and some sexual content.
1. Chapter 1

_**Pokémon: Christopher and Naomi**_

**Hello viewers, I'm Christopher Kamori, and this is the first chapter in a Pokémon fan-fiction series. I hope you enjoy it and continue to read it as I go along writing it. I in no way own anything that is related to Pokémon. Only the original characters and content are mine. Please support the official franchise.**

Chapter One: Today is a Good Day to Start

(Littleroot Town, Hoenn: **?** PoV)

Um, hi. I guess some introductions are in order. My name is Christopher C. Kamori, but usually I just go by Chris. To give you a general description, I'm short, I have somewhat shaggy, brown hair, grey eyes, and am not really muscular or toned. In fact, I don't do much exercise or activities at all that would make me so, but I'm not too weak. At least I'm smart, so that's something. I always try to look for the positives in life and make the most of them; otherwise, what would be the point in having them? Other than that, I try to be laid back and calm; maybe a little lazy.

A few months ago, I turned 18. That means I'm now old enough to become a true pokemon trainer, but to be honest, I'm not sure if I'm cut out for a pokémon journey. I moved to this quiet, wooded town, away from the urban city of Petalburg to work for the famous Professor Birch. He's always taking on lab assistants to help him move boxes or file paper work. And it's a great job. The Professor's even nice enough to provide living spaces on the top floor of the lab to assistants like me from out-of-town.

I've been working here for two months now, and things seem to be working out. I've made good friends with a guy named Freeman Stan, a guy about the same age as me. He's tall, black, wears glasses, and has an afro that he combs back into a puffed ponytail. He's a great guy, always making jokes and helping out when needed. I can probably count on him more than the other assistants here. He's really into working here, and hopes to one day become a famous top researcher like Professor Birch.

In the short time I've worked here, I've received a Porygon to keep. I've taken to calling him Beta1, or sometimes just Beta. I remember receiving him because he was damaged and in need of repair. I couldn't stand to see the little guy just get thrown away, even if he is just a computer program. It took some time, but with the help of Freeman and a couple of other guys, we were able to get him fixed and good as new. I even took the liberty of upgrading some of his systems to be more high-tech. I occasionally put him in his pokeball, but most of the time, I keep him by my side while I'm working or in my room for when I need him.

(March 15th, 6:30 am: **Chris**'s PoV)

I woke up relatively early this morning, which isn't too unusual for me, but I had stayed up late filing a couple of reports last night. So I couldn't say I was well refreshed. Still I made myself a cup of earl gray to wake myself up, and went downstairs to start todays work. I was surprised when I went downstairs to see Professor Birch up so early as well. Normally he sleeps in till noon. But I could tell by the gear he was wearing that he was going out for field research. He always loved doing it, but he's recently been going out a lot more often since his son, Brendan, left for his pokémon journey.

(Flashback three weeks ago: **Professor Birch**'s PoV)

A new trainer with short black hair and wearing a black and green outfit with a white hat named Brendan enters the room. "Hey dad, how's it going," the kid asked me?

"Just feeling a bit old, but other than that, I'm doing good kid," I responded. "So are you feeling nervous," I asked?

"No way! I've been waiting for this for years," Brendan exclaimed confidently.

"Good to hear. Now since you're starting out, I have for you your pokedex and pokeballs," I said handing him the two things. "And, if you look behind me, you'll see I have three pokeballs, each with a starter pokemon for you to choose from: Mudkip, the mudfish pokémon, Treecko, the wood gecko pokémon, and Torchic, the chick pokémon."

"Wow dad! This is awesome," Brendan said looking over the three pokémon. He stood there for a few minutes pondering which one to take. I could tell by the concerned look in his eyes that he was having a lot of difficulty choosing. "So how can I be sure which one to get," he asked me?

I smiled and said, "Look kid, just like now, you'll be faced with a lot of decisions that only you can make. Just use your instincts and I'm sure you'll make the right choice."

Brendan spent a few more minutes looking over the pokeballs and finally made his decision. "In that case, I choose Treecko," he said holding his new pokemon's pokeball proudly.

"Good," I said. "Now I say this to everyone I see off, so the world is full of tall grass waiting to be explored. The world of pokémon awaits you."

(Present: **Chris**'s PoV)

Since the Professor's been gone today, work has been light. Freeman and I moved around a couple of boxes and mailed out the bills, though most of the time we just sat in the break room watching Oak and Mary's Talk Show. Professor Oak had fled Kanto for Goldenrod, Johto after Team Rocket took over half of Kanto and has been doing this show ever since.

By about 6:00 p.m., we had noticed Professor Birch was still gone. Since it would be getting dark soon, we worried where he might be. One of the other assistants called his home to see if he might be there. When his wife said she hadn't seen him, the assistant became worried and asked if me or Freeman could go look for him. I grabbed Beta's pokeball off my desk and we headed out. Freeman said he'ld search the town and I would go search the roads just outside of town.

When I got to the road leading through the woods, I sent out Beta1. "Beta, use your motion tracker. See if you can't find the Professor with it."

Beta1 responded with an affirmative beep and began scanning the area.

After a short walk over a hill,, I could see the Professor in a tree surrounded by three Poochyena, all barking and growling angrily. "HELP SOMEONE," he screamed as he held onto a tree branch.

"All right. Beta, execute attack mode type one," I whispered. In response to my order, Beta1 began sharpening its edges to be like a blade. It let out a confident and sharp noise indicating it was ready.

I picked up a rock to throw at the Poochyena and shouted, "Hey! Over here!" The Poochyena took notice and began barking as they rushed towards us. Two of them went after Beta1 while the other one attacked me. It tried biting me and ripping my leg with its tusks, but I was able to kick it away and keep my distance.

Meanwhile, Beta1 was utilizing its motion tracker to dodge the enemy tackles and hit them with its own. I could see that his sharp edge had already injured one of them.

As the one I was facing charged at me, I braced for impact. It knocked me on the ground and started trying to bite my face. I held it back until I was able to deliver a strong punch to its nose. It let out a sharp cry and I threw it off me. It got back up and began running away. I looked over to see that the two fighting Beta1 had met a similar fate.

(**Professor Birch**'s PoV)

As I watched the fight, I couldn't help but be amazed at how good Chris was doing. I could have sworn he had never fought a pokémon battle before, yet here he was fighting off these Poochyena like a pro. I was relieved when the Poochyena finally ran off.

"Are you okay Professor," Chris asked?

"Yeah, I'm good. Thanks," I replied. "I have to say, not bad. So when did you become such a good trainer kid?"

Chris simply stated, "Thanks Professor, but I was just using my instincts I guess."

"Skills like yours at such an early level are rarely seen. Anyways, thank you. We should probably be getting back to the lab. It'll be dark soon."

(Later that night: **Chris**'s PoV)

I laid on my bed still excited about rescuing Professor Birch earlier. Beta1 was performing some self-maintenance to repair anything that was damaged in the fight. "How are you doing Beta," I asked to which he responded with a happy sounding whistle. So a pokémon trainer huh. Having experienced a full on battle, I became interested in the idea of it more and more. I figure I'll sleep on it and think more in the morning.

(2 weeks later, March 29th)

Over the past few weeks, I've had some time to think, and I've decided I'm leaving the lab. I had originally thought that simply leaving home and starting a new life would help me find my purpose in life. But now I realize that staying here isn't going to get me that much farther in life. Which is why starting today, I'm going on an adventure. I'm all packed up with the food and supplies I need to head out.

I've talked about it with Freeman for a while now, and he's been very supportive of the idea. He's even been getting the urge to go out and explore as well. A couple of days ago, he asked the Professor if he could change over to become a field researcher. He got the promotion and will be leaving soon as well. To top it all off, the Professor decided to give his last pokémon, Mudkip, to Freeman. The Torchic had already been given to another trainer from Oldale Town about a week ago. Freeman loved his job as a researcher too much to simply leave it behind. Personally though, I wasn't so big into working while I traveled.

When I went downstairs, I was met by Professor Birch and the rest of the staff members. They all wanted to wish me the best of luck before I headed out. The Professor smiled and said, "These past few months with you seem to have flown by. We'll all miss you working here. You made a pretty damn good assistant."

"Thanks Professor, and thank you everyone," I said happily. "It's been great working here guys. I'll be sure to call in occasionally to see how everyone's doing."

Professor Birch handed me my own pokedex, as well as five empty pokeballs. "Here you go," he said. "The world is full of tall grass just waiting to be explored. The world of pokémon awaits you." I couldn't help but laugh with joy at hearing his iconic farewell speech.

Freeman looked to me and said, "See you man. Good luck on your journey. Maybe when I get out of here we'll meet up on the road."

"Maybe," I said. "I'll be looking forward to it."

(Route 101)

That day, I headed out for the closest town on the road, Oldale Town. It's a quiet, little town, but it's a good point to stop between here and Petalburg City, my home town. As I headed up the road, I decided it would be a good idea to start training Beta1 a little. I had him fight any tenacious Zigzagoons and Linoones that would try to steal food from my bag. They were fast and cunning, so I figured they would be good to help Beta1 work on his dodging and quick strikes. After walking and training for about five miles, I decided to take a five-minute rest. It wasn't as hot this time of year so I was able to cool off and get back on the road pretty quickly. Ever couple of miles I would take short rests and continue. I started to notice that Beta1 was getting a few scratches and dents from all the battling. Though he seemed eager to continue on the road. Eventually, it started getting dark, so we decided to set up camp for the night. I set up the tent and Beta1 started a fire for us. After I finished eating some dinner, I tried fixing up a couple of Beta's scratches.

(The next morning)

After eating breakfast and putting up the tent, we walked for another few hours until finally we reached Oldale Town. I was surprised at how good of time we made getting here. I stopped at what would be the first of many Pokémon Centers I would encounter on my journey. The nurse in charge of working there took Beta and did a quick check-up on him. She put him in his pokeball and put it on a special machine. In a matter of minutes, she took him off of it and handed his pokeball back to me. When I sent him out, I could see that any of the scratches and dents he received while trainer were completely removed.

"Thank you," I said to the nurse.

"You're welcome," she said politely. "Try to be careful out there."

"I will," I replied.

I spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon purchasing some more food and supplies for the road ahead. Once me and Beta1 were all set, we decided to head out.

(Route 102)

After I ate lunch, I decided it would be a good idea to head out and keep on traveling until nightfall. About two miles outside of Oldale Town, I saw a clear, sparkling pond. I decided to take a closer look. On the water's surface, I could see several Lotad lily pads drifting along the water. I saw that one of them was ferrying what looked like a small Azuril. I was enjoying the sight when I heard a small cry. I turned around, and out of the bushes came a small Ralts girl with long hair and deep purple eyes. Her dress was torn and dirty and she looked both exhausted and panicked. When she saw me, she looked afraid, but the sound of barking from behind her made her cry and go running behind me. Out of the bushes came five Poochyena, all growling at me. I tried to stand my ground and look confident to try to intimidate them, but when they still looked like they were going to attack, I sent out Beta1 to back me up.

"Beta, use your sharpen and tackle," I shouted. Beta1 acknowledged me and began doing so. One of the Poochyena came charging at us, but was quickly taken out by Beta's cutting tackle. The other Poochyena joined in and split into teams of two, two against me and two against Beta. I was able to hold them off, and beat them back before they could sink their fangs into me. Beta was doing a good job also of fighting them. I saw one of them jump on his back and start scratching at him. "Beta, use your thunder wave," I shouted. It released a small discharge, knocking the Poochyena off his back and immobilizing it. I grabbed one of the Poochyena I was fighting when it tried to ram me, and I threw it into the pond. The other one I kicked in the jaw, causing it to whimper and run off. The two ones Beta1 was fighting also retreated. I saw the first one Beta had knocked out try attacking the Ralts girl who was standing a little ways behind me, watching the fight anxiously. "Beta, tackle it! Don't let it get her," I said. Beta1 rushed in and beat it down again, only this time it ran away.

Just when I thought they were all gone, one more came out. A powerful looking Mightyena came out with a scar on its face. It looked like the mark Beta had given one of the Poochyena when we saved the professor. I guess it must have evolved in that time. It looked angrily at us and let out a sound howl.

I held out my pokedex to analyze it. It said, "Mightyena, an aggressive dark-type pokémon. They usually hunt in packs with Poochyena. They are very dangerous in the wild and attack their foes with sharp bites. Approach with extreme caution."

I told Beta to sharpen up its edges a bit more. It did so and prepared for the beast pokémon to strike. It lunged at me and pinned me down. It was so strong, I found it difficult to hold its bites back. Beta1 responded immediately and rammed it off of me. "Thanks buddy," I said, grateful for its help. "Use your psybeam," I said. Beta fired out a thin, colorful beam at the Mightyena, but it appeared to have no effect other than making it angrier. This time when it charged at us, I told Beta to use his tackle, and together, we lunged at it. Our combined force knocked it back, causing it to fall over. When it got back up, I could see it looked exhausted, as did we. It howled again, and ran away, giving us a nasty look.

Glad that we won, I returned Beta1 to his pokeball after thanking him for doing a good job. After returning him, I realized just how much pain I was in and collapsed. Lying on my back, I breathed heavily. Judging by the sky, I could tell it was going to be night-time soon, and there wouldn't be enough time to walk back to Oldale Town.

Remembering the Ralts girl, I looked around to see if she was okay. Then I felt something small climb onto my chest. I looked up and saw the Ralts sitting on top of me with a sad look in her eyes. I heard a weak, sad voice in my head speak.

**"You're hurt because of me. I'm so sorry."** I instantly acknowledged that it was telepathy coming from the Ralts girl. Her eyes began to water up and she began crying on my shirt. **"Please forgive me,"** she began pleading repeatedly.

I wrapped my arm around her to comfort her and said, "Don't worry. It's not your fault. So long as your safe, that's all that matters."

In my head, I heard her say, **"Thank you."** Her voice trailed off, and when I looked up, I could see that she had fainted from exhaustion. She seemed badly injured and would need help as soon as possible. But in my condition, I couldn't go anywhere. So I decided that I would get some sleep here and head out in the morning.

(The next morning)

I slept all night in that one spot without moving an inch. I could feel that the girl was still clinging to me asleep. When I woke up in the morning, I decided to carry her to the Pokémon Center back in Oldale. I was weak, but at least I was in better condition now than I was yesterday. She woke up and saw me carrying her. She panicked a little when she saw me, but then remembering who I was relaxed again.

"Where are you taking me," she asked weakly?

"To a Center in a nearby town," I replied. "The people there can help heal you."

**"Don't worry, I'll be fine,"** she said as she began trying to sit up, but immediately flinched from the pain.

"So may I ask what your name is," I asked?

**"Naomi... My name is Naomi," **she said. She seemed a little nervous speaking to me. Which I guess would seem very normal. Most Ralts have little to no interaction with humans, and as a result are rarely seen. So I could understand her being afraid.

"You don't have to worry, I'll make sure you stay safe," I said in hopes of comforting her.

She immediately sat up and said, **"Wait my parents!" **I saw her eyes began to tear up again, and she started crying into my shirt sleeve. **"They... they... tried to protect me... but they..." **I could tell what she was about to say.

"I understand. I'm so sorry for your loss," I said. Now I began to worry, if this girl doesn't have any parents, than she can't survive on my own. I could try taking her in, but I don't want to force her to. In her crying, I felt her pass out again. I guess the stress was too much for her.

When we got to the Pokémon Center back in Oldale, the nurse saw me and recognized me. She then noticed the Ralts I was carrying and looked shocked.

"What happened," she asked?

"This Ralts has been badly hurt. Please can you heal her," I pleaded?

"Of course. Just hand her to me," she said.

"Naomi, wake up," I said shaking her lightly.

She looked up at me and became a little shocked when she saw where we were. **"Where are we," **she asked nervously?

"We're at a Pokémon Center. This nurse will help treat your wounds." The nurse looked at her and smiled so as to not seem threatening. When I tried handing Naomi over to the nurse, I could feel her still holding on.

**"Please don't leave me,"** she begged.

"I'll be waiting for you here. I promise," I said.

**"Okay,"** she said nervously. She let the nurse take her, but I could still tell she was afraid.

"She's in bad shape, but I think I can heal her," the nurse said to me.

"Please, do what ever you can," I said.

I waited several hours outside of the emergency room where Naomi was being treated. But still I waited. Upholding my promise to her, I didn't even get up to go eat or anything. One of the Chanseys there brought a few bandages to help treat my wounds while I waited. After six hours, the nurse brought out Naomi in her arms. I could see Naomi look up and her eyes become bright with the joy of seeing that I kept my promise. I took her into my arms, and she wrapped her arms around my neck, giving my a hug.

**"Thank you so much for staying,"** she said.

I just smiled and told her, "No problem." I set her down so she could walk.

Now that we were outside, I decided I would ask her how she felt about traveling with me. But before I could even ask her, I heard her say, **"Yes."**

"Yes," I asked?

**"You were about to ask me if I wanted to travel with you. I'm sorry, but I read your mind. And my answer is yes,"** she said.

"Very well then. Naomi, welcome to the group. I pulled out one of the pokeballs the Professor gave to me to put her in it, but I saw her nervously back away when she saw it.

**"Please, is it alright if I stayed out here," **she asked? I could tell she didn't want to be put into the pokeball, so I put it away.

"Certainly," I said. "Just promise to stay close."

**"I promise,"** she said as she moved a little closer to me.

The two of us smiled, and after resting a while, set out to continue our journey. Naomi would walk beside me unless she got tired, in which I would carry her on my shoulder. The sun was shining, and I could see a great journey ahead of us.

**Well there you have it people. The first chapter in my series. If you enjoyed this chapter, feel free to favorite it and read any other chapters I have released. I plan to update this story ever week or two. If you want you can leave a review in box below. I would like to ask that you don't leave anything rude or negative please. Thank you.**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Pokémon: Christopher and Naomi**_

**Hello viewers, and welcome back for the second chapter of Pokémon: Christopher and Naomi. I realize that in my last chapter, the battle scenes weren't quite as long as I wanted them to be. But don't worry, today, I have included a couple of longer battles as well as a new character to be introduced. So enjoy the writings. I in no way own anything that is related to Pokémon. Only the original characters and content are mine. Please support the official franchise.**

Chapter Two: Freeman's Start, and Our Continuing

(April 1st, Route 101: **Freeman**'s PoV)

"I see," I whispered as I started writing down something in my journal. I was hiding in some bushes as I watched a Zigzagoon bury some food under a tree. I watched, keenly interested, as the Zigzagoon rubbed its sharp, bristly fur against the tree to leave its scent. "So that's how it finds food it has buried," I said, continuing to document it in my journal. Suddenly, a second Zigzagoon came and approached the first one. The two puffed out their fur and began hissing at each other. What I was watching was a battle that Zigzagoons commonly have over food. After a few minutes of the two sizing each other up, the second one saw it was clearly no match and ran off. At this point, I was writing down notes like crazy.

"Okay, now I just need to get some measurements from it," I said. I threw a pokeball out, "Blue, come on out!" A white flash emerged from the pokeball, and out of it came a Mudkip which let out a high-pitch croak. The Zigzagoon began hissing at me and his Blue, determined to protect his food stash. "Blue, use your water gun," I shouted. Blue did so and landed a direct hit on the Zigzagoon. Now that it was mad, it began dashing at Blue with its trademark zig-zag attack strategy. "Dodge it," I yelled, but the Zigzagoon's tackle still managed to hit. When blue got back up, I told him to hold his ground. When the Zigzagoon started to charge again, I told him to wait. Then at the last second, I told him, "Now use mud slap!" Blue hit the Zigzagoon directly in the face and knocked it down. Then I pulled out a pokeball and threw it at the racoon pokémon. It went into the pokeball, shook back and forth several times as the Zigzagoon tried to escape, then locked. I smiled and said to Blue, "Great job buddy." The Mudkip seemed pleased with its trainer's praise.

After treating this Zigzagoon's wounds with a potion I brought, I did some measurements and examinations on it to write down with the notes I took on him. "Okay, thank you," I told him as I handed him a biscuit. He smelled it for a moment, then took it out of my hands and started eating it. When he finished, I took out his pokeball, pressed a small button on the back of it for about ten seconds, and it let out a click noise with a small flash. This was me releasing the Zigzagoon back into the wild. "You take care," I told it as I walked off. The Zigzagoon smiled and ran back to guard its tree.

So I guess I'm starting off pretty well. I've already got several pages of research written down with more sure to come. So I'm suppose to be heading for Oldale Town. Knowing Chris, that's probably where he headed first also. Once I catch up with him, we can travel together. Maybe by then, he will have caught plenty of pokémon to help me with my research. There's just one problem though. I have no idea where Oldale Town is.

(Route 102: **Naomi**'s PoV)

I've been traveling with Christopher for a full day now. He was nice enough to take me somewhere in Oldale Town to get my dress repaired before we left. After we walked a few miles, I could see the pond where I met him yesterday. And although the water sparkled beautifully, I couldn't bear to look at it without remembering the battle that took place. I sensed that Christopher felt the same way.

"Are you alright," Christopher asked me?

**"Yes. I'll be fine,"** I told him.

"Maybe we should keep walking a little more," he said. I'm sure that he knew I was uncomfortable being here.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, we decided to stop to eat. Christopher pulled out a sandwich he had bought and tore it in half. He then handed me one of the halves.

**"Thank you so much," **I said gratefully as I bowed my head to him.

"You're welcome," he said, "and you don't need to be so formal. I'm happy to share some food with you."

I took a bite out of the sandwich. I had never eaten human food before. It tasted strange yet satisfying. Eating with Christopher made me think about eating with my family. It almost brought tears to my eyes, but I didn't want to make Christopher think me being sad was his fault. I looked over at him and saw how laid back and relaxed he looked while eating his half of the sandwich. He didn't seem to have any worries. I don't know why, but his relaxed and calm attitude seems to be making me feel better.

(**Chris**'s PoV)

I know it must be hard for Naomi right now. Loosing her parents must have been pretty traumatizing for her. I've been doing my best to comfort her and make her feel welcome. Beta1's been very nice to her also. When I finished eating, I saw that she was still lost in thought, so I thought I'd wait until she was ready to head back out.

Just then, I noticed someone come up to us. Naomi sensed him and immediately looked up. Having been startled by him, she ran and stood close beside me, looking at him very shyly.

"Hey, are you a pokémon trainer," he asked?

"I am," I replied.

"The name's Keith, and I challenge you to a match," he said with a slightly cocky attitude.

"All right then," I said. I was excited about having my first official trainer battle, but I didn't want to let him know I was a beginner.

"Just a one-on-one," I asked?

"Sure," he said. "Lets go Nuzleaf!" He sent out his pokémon which seemed ready and eager to battle.

I held out my pokedex to it. "Nuzleaf, the scarecrow pokémon and the evolved form of Seedot. They can use the leaf on their head to generate wind, and have often seen as mischief makers of the forest."

**"Um, Christopher,"** Naomi asked me?

**"Yes Naomi,"** I asked through thought. This guy didn't know about Naomi speaking through telepathy, so I figured it would be better if I just communicated to her through thought.

**"Are you going to make me fight,"** she asked worriedly?

**"Of course not. I don't want to force you to fight at all if you don't want to. Besides, Nuzleaf can resist psychic powers so he would be very dangerous for you to fight,"** I said.

**"Okay, thank you," **she said sounding relieved.

"Beta1, lets go," I said, releasing him from his pokeball. "Are you okay to fight," I asked him. He responded with a positive sounding noise to tell me yes.

We walked out into a clearing nearby so we would have more room to fight. Keith stood about fifty feet away with his Nuzleaf beside him, and I stood with Beta1 beside me. We both stared directly at each other, each of us eager to win.

"Beta, use your sharpen," I said.

"Nuzleaf, razor leaf," my opponent shouted. His Nuzleaf jumped up into the air and started swinging the leaf on its head back and forth, firing out several sharp leaves at Beta1.

"Shoot them down with psybeam," I said. Beta1 fired out several piercing laser beams, taking out the projectiles with clean precision. "Now, fire at Nuzleaf."

"Dodge them," Keith yelled. Nuzleaf began running and jumping too fast for Beta1 to hit him. The Nuzleaf ran towards a tree and jumped up it, continuing to evade the relentless energy beams until it was able to hide behind a branch. "Faint attack," he yelled out.

I've seen how faint attacks work. The pokémon using the move bends an aura of light and shadows to appear invisible, then strikes when the opponent least expects it. "Use your motion tracker to find him Beta," I said. I knew if he relied on his standard visuals, he wouldn't be able to detect him. The battle field was silent as both of us waited for the other to strike. I saw the Nuzleaf begin to reappear and strike from behind Beta1. But just as the attack was about to connect, Beta1 moved to the side to dodge it. Then he lashed back with one of his sharpened edges and cut the Nuzleaf across the chest. "Now tackle it," I said. The Nuzleaf was able to recover and dodge the attack however. The two pokémon continued to battle it out. Each one would try to land a hit and the other would dodge it. Occasionally one of us would order our pokémon to use psybeam or razor leaf, but every time the attacks would either miss or would barely hit. Soon, the pokémon found themselves back where they stood at the start of the match, each staring at each other. I saw the Nuzleaf dripping blood from the cut on his chest, but by the look on his face, I could tell neither him nor his trainer was going to give up just yet.

Naomi was standing beside me as she watched the battle closely. **"How do you think you'll win this,"** she asked me curiously.

**"Don't worry. I've got an idea,"** I said confidently.

She looked into my mind and saw my plan I was thinking. **"Oh I see,"** she said.

Keith looked like he was getting frustrated with me. "Not bad," he said. "I have to say you've done pretty good so far."

"Thanks, you're not doing so bad yourself," I replied as a polite courtesy.

"Lets end this Nuzleaf," he said. "Bullet seed!"

"Psybeam," I said.

The two attacks collided. Each side was giving it their all to try to force their opponents attack back. But ultimately, Beta1's attack lasted longer and pushed through, blasting Nuzleaf directly. It got back up without looking too hurt however. I should have known that Nuzleaf's dark-type nature makes it more resistant to moves like psybeam.

Now I planned to execute my plan. "Beta, use your agility and tackle," I shouted. I figured that at his normal speed, Beta1 wouldn't have any hope of catching Nuzleaf. But agility would make him twice as fast, making him harder to evade outrun. With agility doubling his speed, Beta1 went flying towards Nuzleaf, prepared to strike him head on. To my surprise, Keith didn't tell him to try to run or dodge like I had predicted, but to try to counter with a pound attack. Nuzleaf pulled back his fist and prepared to punch Beta1 to try to stop him. But when his fist clashed with Beta's body, it had little to no effect and Beta's tackle sent him flying.

When the Nuzleaf's trainer ran over to check on his pokémon, he saw Nuzleaf had been knocked unconscious, making me the winner.

I ran over to Beta1 to congratulate him. "Great job Beta, you did it," I said as I picked him up, hugging him. Beta seemed pleased with my praise and was letting out several beeps and whistle noises.

**"Great job you two,"** Naomi said to us. I could tell she was happy we won by the smile on her face.

"Thank you Naomi," I said to her. Beta1 also let out a sound of gratitude. This was great. I managed to win my first official trainer battle. Having rejoiced in this minute of triumph, I decided to walk over to my opponent to congratulate him for a good battle.

"Hey good fight Keith," I said. I could see he was holding his Nuzleaf checking to make sure it was okay. "Those wounds look pretty severe. Is he going to be alright," I asked?

He returned the fainted pokémon to his pokeball. "Yeah, he'll be fine," he said. "You're a really good trainer. How long have you been training," he asked me?

"About a couple of days ago," I stated. "I'm really still kind of a novice."

He looked disappointed that I said that. "I've been training for a few months now," he said. "How could I have lost to a new guy? I guess I still have a lot more training to do." He gave me $20.00 dollars as a cash prize, we shook hands, and went our separate ways. He headed towards Oldale to heal his pokémon and I continued on the road to Petalburg City.

"Hell yeah!" I said excitedly. "I won my first trainer battle and made twenty bucks."

"What does that mean,"

Naomi asked curiously? I forgot that she's probably never heard of money before, so I explained it to her.

"Basically, humans exchange money for things that they want. Everything from food and supplies, to services and luxuries," I explained.

**"So then that's good then,"** she asked, still seeming to be a little confused?

"Yes," I said.

**"Then yay"** she said sounding happy.

(**Naomi**'s PoV)

I had enjoyed watching Christopher and Beta1 battle. The two of them seemed to be fighting perfectly in synch with one another. I was really glad that Christopher won, but at the same time, I kind of felt sorry for the other trainer's pokemon.

**"Is that trainer's pokémon going to be okay," **I asked Christopher?

"Oh yeah, he'll be fine. He just got roughed up a bit is all," he said. "Trainers and their pokémon battle so that the can both become stronger. When you loose, you get a little stronger and the trainer becomes wiser for future battles."

**"Can I ask you something else Christopher?"**

"Sure."

**"You told me before the battle that you wouldn't force me to battle if I didn't want to right? At first I thought it was just because you thought I wasn't strong enough to fight. But then you asked Beta1 also if he wanted to fight also. Why?**

He smiled and said, "Because like I told you earlier, I don't want to make you guys battle if you don't want to. Doing that would be cruel and pointless. And if either of you got seriously injured in a fight that you were against, I couldn't forgive myself; both as a pokémon trainer and a friend."

I could sense the emotions surrounding Christopher, and I could tell he wasn't lying. All my life, I've been told that trainers were cruel to their pokémon and only wanted to use them for power. It was clear that Christopher was different.

**"Then I would like to fight too,"** I said. **"You were willing to risk your life to save mine. I want to help you out on your journey."**

"Are you sure Naomi," he asked? "I don't want you to think you owe me any sort of debt just because I saved you."

**"I understand that,"** I said. **"Growing up, I was told to stay away from humans, especially trainers. I was told that they would abuse and use their pokémon for their own selfish purposes. But then I met you. You weren't afraid to fight along side your partner and risk your own life. You've been kind and treated us like friends, like equals. I'd be honored if you allowed me to train and battle with you."**

(**Chris**'s PoV)

When Naomi asked me if she could fight, I was a little surprised. So far she has let on as being very timid and afraid of battles. But right now, I could tell she wasn't going to take no for an answer. I'll just have to make sure she trains hard.

"Alright then. I'll start training you in the morning," I said.

I could see her face brighten up with excitement. **"Thank you,"** she said.

That night, we got the tent set up and the fire started. But as Naomi and I sat we sat there, both of our stomaches started to growl. I reached over to my backpack to search for any food that was left, but sadly there was none.

"Dang it," I muttered to myself, disappointed that I didn't bring enough food for the road. I decided I would go look for some food in the woods. "Hold on," I said as I began to walk into the woods a little ways.

**"Where are you going,"** Naomi asked?

"Were out of food so I'm going to look for some. I'll only be gone a minute. Just keep an eye on my stuff for me."

I searched around the woods with a flashlight for a couple of minutes, until finally I came across a Pecha tree. I had known these woods were full of them. They weren't quite ripe this time of year, but they would have to do. I picked a half-dozen of them so we would have more to eat tomorrow. I returned to the camp to find Naomi waiting for me patiently.

**"What did you find," **she asked?

I held out two of the softer Pechas that I had picked. "One for each of us," I said.

Naomi's eyes seemed to become filled with immense joy upon seeing the fruit. She graciously accepted one of them and began eating it happily.

"I take it you love Pechas," I asked?

She nodded her head so as to not talk with her mouth full. **"They're my favorite,"** she said.

After we had finished eating, we sat and talked by the fire for a while. Mostly I told her about some of the days I worked at the lab. We also talked about some other various things. But when I accidentally mentioned family, she started to look sad, so I diverted the topic to something else. Eventually though, as the night got late, we heard the sounds of several Mightyena howling in the distance. I could immediately see Naomi start to look worried. Although she was smiling and happy mere minutes ago, she now looked upset and distraught.

"Don't worry, the fire will scare off predators and enemies," I said to try to reassure her. Still she didn't look quite as happy as earlier. "Come on. We should probably be getting to bed soon."

Whenever I would go to bed, I would send Beta1 out so he wouldn't have to spend the night crammed in a pokeball. He's a computer, so I'm not actually sure if he knows what uncomfortable is, but still I think it's a nice gesture anyways. He sits just outside my tent to act a sentry. Naomi, however, seems to be uncomfortable sleeping alone and always wants to sleep with me. At first I was against it due to how wrong and weird it feels for multiple reasons. But she was persistent the first night so now she sleeps on my chest. It still feels weird and a bit uncomfortable, but I'm not going to just throw her off me.

As I laid there, I found it difficult to sleep, mostly do to the noise of the wilderness. But as I would start to fall asleep, I would keep feeling Naomi tense up, and it always seemed like she was about to start crying. It was clear she was having another nightmare like she'd had the previous night. Eventually though, she settled down, and I could at last get some sleep.

(The next morning: **Freeman**'s PoV)

I woke up pretty early this morning only to find that my notes had been scattered everywhere. I'm not exactly sure how they came to be this way, but it took me forever to reorganize them. I ate breakfast and fed Blue, and then after I put up my tent, we headed off. Due to my several stops I made to do research yesterday, I knew that I probably still have a long ways to go. But at least I had ran into a girl yesterday who was able to give me directions.

(Flashback)

"Okay, so lets see now, moss always points North right? Or was it East?" I was talking to myself, hoping it would help me think of something to get me back on track. Still, there was no denying it. I was hopelessly lost.

I heard a noise coming from the trees. Taking precautions, I held out Blue's pokeball, just in case it was a Poochyena attacking me. But then it only turned out to be a girl, and judging by the contest ribbon she was wearing on a necklace, she was probably a coordinator. She was cute, had short, white hair, had green eyes, and had a Pikachu in her arms. We just stared at each other awkwardly, as we had seemed to startle each other. Realizing how dumb I looked still holding out my pokeball, I put it back in my belt.

"Um, hey there," I said uncomfortably.

"Hey," she said back.

"So, my name's Freeman," I said, introducing myself.

She laughed a little. "Sorry," she apologized. "It's just kind of a funny name," she said smiling. "My name's Hiroka, and this is Liechi" she said. Her Pikachu let out a friendly pika sound.

I started to laugh a little also. "I guess your names not so normal either," I said. We both laughed a little at the irony.

"So what are you doing way out here," she asked curiously?

"I was doing some research when I kind of got lost," I said.

"Oh yeah, I was watching you earlier. I believe you are working for Professor Birch right? You were battling a Zigzagoon," she said sounding a little energetic. "So where are you trying to go," she asked?

"Oldale Town," I said.

"Oh, I know where that is," she said sounding excited. She looked around for a second and then pointed in a direction. "If you head that way, you'll find a road that goes to Oldale Town from there."

"Wow, thanks," I said sounding grateful.

"No problem," she said smiling.

"Well in that case, I'll head out that direction. Bye Hiroka, and thanks again," I said as I headed out in the direction she had pointed me to.

"Bye Freeman," she said looking happy that she was able to help.

When I turned around, I saw her walking the opposite direction. "Wait, if you knew what I was doing earlier, than why did you ask," I said?

She stuck her tongue out tauntingly at me and smiled, than ran off. I simply smiled and continued walking.

(Present)

What a cute, funny girl. I wonder if I'll ever meet her again?

I would try to catch more pokémon to study, but it seems I've ran out of pokeballs already, so I'm going to have to go buy some in the next town. It's a shame too, because I keep on seeing so many Beautiflies and Shroomish that would be perfect to study up close. But every time I approach one, it runs away or begins scattering sleep powder. At least I can still take notes in my journal on my observations of them.

Today, I decided to let Blue walk out of his pokeball, beside me. He seems to enjoy the morning dew. After walking several miles, I finally saw a sign that said, "Oldale Town: 2 miles." But then I noticed two hooded figures walk out from behind the sign. They were wearing red and black clothing that had a big M's on the front of each. I couldn't make out their faces, but I could tell one was a man and the other was a woman.

I looked at them a little nervously and asked, "Can I help you?"

They stared at me coldly and the man responded, "We've been watching you researcher. Hand over all the data you've collected and your pokémon and we'll let you live."

Blue at this point looked agitated at them and began letting out an angry grumble. "Who are you," I asked?

They both reached for orange-colored pokeballs with M's on them just like the one's on their shirts and said in union, "We are Team Magma, the rulers of the Earth."

I had heard of them before, but I thought they were just a small, underground gang. It looks like these are just a couple of their grunts. "Blue, are you ready," I asked? Blue let out a sharp battle cry.

"Go, Poochyena," the man shouted, releasing the mean looking bite pokémon from its pokeball. It started snarling, signifying that it was ready for a battle."

"Zubat, I choose you," the woman said releasing the pokémon from its pokeball as well.

I know two-on-one is unfair, but what other choice do I have? "Blue, use your water gun on Zubat, go!" Blue fired out a blast of water, but the Zubat simply dodged it.

"Poochyena, tackle it," the man said. The Poochyena began to charge for Blue.

"Fight back with your tackle," I told Blue. When him and the enemy Poochyena collided, the two started trying to push the other back, but ultimately, Blue's amphibious strength prevailed, sending his opponent flying back over to where his trainer was.

"Zubat, supersonic," the woman ordered. The Zubat started letting out an echoing wave of sounds, which were very loud and annoying.

Blue looked like the sound waves were hurting him. From what I know, Zubat's sound waves that it emits can cause small seizures or temporarily confuse people and pokémon that hear them. "Try to fight it off," I told Blue, but it was no use. He already seemed to be confused, and was dizzily stumbling around the battlefield.

"Now use wing attack," the woman said.

"Poochyena, tackle him, now," ordered the man.

The two pokémon rushed towards Blue who was still to dazed and confused to respond. He was fortunately able to stumble out of the Zubat's way, but was hit hard by the Poochyena's tackle. He landed back on his feet though, and I could tell he had now snapped out of the confusion.

"Hang in their Blue," I said trying to reassure him. "Use your bide!" Blue's body tensed up as he waited for his opponents' to make their move. The two Magma grunts fell for my trap as they ordered their pokémon to start attacking Blue. I felt sorry for him though, as he had to endure the beatings his opponents were dishing out on him. But after a couple of hits, his body began to glow with an aura of energy. Both of the grunts looked confused at what they were seeing. Then as their pokémon charged in for one more strike, Blue let out a powerful roar and struck both Zubat and Poochyena with a powerful blow, knocking them both out.

The two grunts seeing that their pokémon were no longer able to battle returned their pokémon to their pokeballs. With seeing how much damage Blue had taken, I did the same. But now they both still stood there staring at me.

"You've lost, now get out of here," I said seeming confident.

"F*** you, you little runt! You're going to pay for that," the man said looking angry.

The woman also looked mad, but seemed a bit more composed than her partner. "Your pokemon's strong. Maybe it'll be of use to us when we take it," she said.

They both reached into holsters on their sides and pulled out pistols, pointed directly at me. I could only stare in horror as I knew what they were about to do. They both grinned menacingly, and the man fired at me. I felt a screeching, violent pain in my torso where I was shot. I fell down onto my knees from the excruciating pain, and the last thing I remember was looking down at my chest and seeing blood coming out of my shirt before I blacked out.

(**Chris**'s PoV)

I woke up this morning with Naomi still asleep on top of me. I picked her up and laid her back down beside me so I could get up and get my things together for today. Beta1 was already awake and moving actively about. He looked happy to see me up and gave me a sunny good morning look. Usually, this was the time when him and I would begin our training, which would involve me having him practice working on his speed, sharpening skills, or accuracy while I would do various workout routines. This was sort of my way of being fair, so that he wasn't the only one who would have to struggle. Although this was really hard for me in particular, because I had never really done much working out before, so it was pretty difficult. Still though, I am determined to stick with this. Plus, I'm sure I will encounter a lot of difficulties along the way where being stronger, or at the very least physically fit, will come in handy.

After having got dressed, brushed my teeth and washed up a bit with some of our water, I decided I would wake up Naomi so we could start her training. After helping brush her hair and get ready, we ate some more of those Pechas I had picked, and we went out into an open field nearby to begin.

"So Naomi, lets start with what you know. What can you do," I asked?

She started to think for a minute. **"What do you mean,"** she asked?

"Well, you are psychic, right," I asked her? "Can't you use any sort of telekinesis?" Of course then it occurred to me that she was still very young, so she might not be able to use any powers yet.

**"I can, just not very well,"** she said. She looked off to the side for a second and her eyes started to glow. Suddenly, she started to make some leaves and small rocks begin to float and dance around. She kept it up for a few minutes as I watched keenly. Then as her eyes returned to normal, the objects fell back down. I could tell that doing that had tired her out a little. **"I can make smaller things move, but I haven't practiced very much yet,"** she said.

I was actually pretty impressed that she could use her psychic powers at all. I see a lot of potential in her. "I think we can work with that," I said seeming hopeful.

All of that morning, I had her practice meditating and honing her abilities as she would try to move more objects or heavier items. I even had her practice on Beta1 a few times, which he didn't seem too happy about. It was almost comical seeing her try to pull him back while he would struggle and break away. While Naomi was training, Beta1 and I competed in several races, most of which he would win. We also did a little sparing, where we both practiced dodging and blocking. It got exhausting for all of us after a while, so we decided we would take a break to continue traveling the road to Petalburg City. As the day would continue, we would stop to rest and continue training before heading out again. Right now, we were just seemed like a group of misfit trainers. But I'm sure if we keep this up, we will become something much greater soon.

**So there you have it people. I hope you enjoyed several of the scenes in this chapter. What will happen to Freeman's Mudkip, Blue, as well as he research notes? And how will Chris's training with Naomi and Beta1 go? Find out all of this and more, next time on Pokémon: Christopher and Naomi. While this chapter was longer than the previous chapter, not all chapters will be this long. It simply depends on how much work I have in college. If you enjoyed this chapter, feel free to favorite it and read any other chapters I have released. I plan to update this story ever week or two. If you want you can leave a review in box below. I would like to ask that you don't leave anything rude or negative please. Thank you**.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Pokémon: Christopher and Naomi**_

**Hello Internet, and welcome to the third chapter in my Pokémon fan fiction series. It's a little longer than the previous two chapters. I don't know if I can keep writing chapters this long in the future, but I do intend to keep to my schedule of one chapter per one or two weeks. So without prolonging this much longer, here's the disclaimer.**

**The following is a non-profit, fan-based fiction. I in no way own anything that is related to Pokémon. Only the original characters and content are mine. Please support the official franchise.**

Chapter Three: The Fear of Hate

(April 4th: **Naomi**'s PoV)

Christopher's training has been hard so far, but I think it has been worth it. It feels as though my power has grown immensely in just a few short days, and I owe it all to him. He's helped me develop my psychic abilities in ways I would have never thought to try. But I still know that what I am experiencing now is only the beginning of my training.

Him and Beta1 have been training hard as well. I always enjoy watching them do practice spars or competitions between one another. Christopher ends up becoming especially tired however. He doesn't as much now as when he first started, but it looks like he still has a long ways to go as well.

We've been challenged by several trainers along the road, but the two of them have beaten every one. I'm impressed every time I watch Christopher fight. He always looks happy, but stays calm and focused. He always gives respect to his opponents, even when they are rude or angry at him. And after every fight, he praises Beta1 for his hard work.

It looks like my training has finally paid off, because now Christopher is letting me fight in my first battle. A trainer named Erin from Petalburg City saw us training and approached us to challenge us to a match. Christopher accepted, but then asked me if I wanted to fight. I was a little caught off guard, but I'm eager to see how far I've come, so I accepted. From what I heard, it's going to be a two-on-two, so that means if I don't win, Beta1 can still win the fight.

**"Are you sure you're feeling up to this,"** Christopher asked me telepathically?

**"I'm ready,"** I said. I was trying not to sound nervous, but I don't think I was doing a very good job of that.

**"Relax,"** he said. **"The mind doesn't function as well when it's stressed. Just take it easy, and try to have fun."**

He was right, I did need to relax. I could feel the confidence he had in me and became a little more at ease. It's nice to know that Christopher at least trusted me more than I did. I took a few deep breaths and started to harness the psychic energy in my body.

Psychic energy is like a form of energy inside of us all, similar to an aura. The difference between energy and aura, however, is that aura diminishes with our life force, whereas energy can live on, even after death, forever bound to our mind and soul. Aura is the essence of the body and energy is the essence of the mind. Through our minds, all living things create psychic energy, and with proper training, many of us can learn to harness it and use it to affect us or our surroundings. For some, like me, learning to manipulate this energy is natural and relatively easy, but for others, it is a skill that takes time to learn. Still though, all living beings have energy living in them.

We were fighting next to a small stream running through the woods, just off of the road. For his first pokémon, Erin sent out a Taillow, a small bird pokémon that I had seen flying commonly throughout these woods. They normally feed on Wurmples that they catch, or peck around in fruit bushes or trees. But I have known a few to get gutsy and challenging Linoones that approach their nests. This one let out a small but high-spirited chirp to show its enthusiasm for battle. It sat on its trainer's shoulder until the battle would begin.

As I began to charge up my psychic energy, I could feel it grow inside of me and flow throughout my entire body. It began to swirl like pools of water in my eyes and flowed through my long hair like the wind. And I felt it focus at the tips of my fingers, where it is usually the easiest to control the energy. Christopher and I decided that we would speak through telepathy only during the fight to confuse the opponent.

**"Just remember what I've taught you and you'll do fine,"** he said.

I nodded and stepped out onto the battlefield. Looking at Christopher and Erin, I could feel the determination to win strongly from both of them.

(**Chris**'s PoV)

I'm a little worried that Naomi will get hurt in this fight, but I'm confident that she can handle herself. And with the two of us communicating through thought, I'm sure nothing can stop us. This Erin guy is using a Taillow. From what I understand, he'll most likely be taking advantage of its speed, so I need to rely especially on evasion for this battle. At least Naomi has a ranged advantage. Plus there's that new technique I helped her learn.

Erin held out his hand and pointed at Naomi, "Let's go Taillow, use quick attack!" His bird pokémon flew off of his shoulder and began flying at high speed towards Naomi.

"Dodge to your left,"

I said. Naomi side stepped at the last second and Taillow swooped by, barely missing her.

"Now grab her hair and use peck," Erin shouted. The Taillow did a u-turn in the air and flew down on top of Naomi and did as his trainer instructed. Naomi's long hair was easily taken advantage of and he started pecking at her head.

I'll admit, that was clever, but a cheap shot. I could hear Naomi crying from the attack.

**"Christopher... ouch... help... uff," **she could barely get out between the pecks.

**"Throw him off with confusion,"** I said. She raised her hand directly at Taillow and forced him off with a pulse of psychic energy. With him off, she started rubbing her head and hair where she had been attacked. **"Are you okay,"** I said, concerned for her.

She looked back at me and smiled, **"I'm okay,"** she said, **"I was just caught off guard is all."**

"Use your confusion on the air. Try to stir up the air to knock Taillow out," I said. Her eyes began to glow, and it felt as though a windstorm was blowing through. She twisted the air around rapidly creating powerful gusts which tossed the Taillow around furiously.

"Hang in there Taillow. Fight back with focus energy," Erin ordered. His Taillow puffed up and started trying to fight back the wind currents. He pulled through, and it now looked as though my strategy was doing nothing. "Now, attack with your quick attack again." Taillow flew in even faster this time to strike.

**"Naomi, use your new technique now, double team,"** I said. Naomi began creating several after images of herself across the battle field. Each one would fade away after a couple of seconds, but they were enough to confuse the Taillow and cause him to miss. He swooped by, attempting to land a hit several times, but he only hit the mirages.

Now was the time to counter attack. **"Now grab him with confusion,"** I said. Naomi's eyes glowed again, only this time, her focus was on Taillow. He was still in the air, only now he wasn't flying, but was being held stationary by Naomi's psychic powers. He was struggling to break free, but it was no use. **"Now, toss him."** Naomi raised him up a little higher with her telekinesis, and then threw him into the ground. The enemy Taillow remained motionless, as it was evident it had been knocked out.

It's trainer looked disappointed, and also a little angry that his pokémon lost, and returned it into its pokeball. "Damn it," he mumbled to himself.

(**Naomi**'s PoV)

The whole time I was fighting, I was nervous about making mistakes or getting hit. But Christopher's strategies helped pull me through. I was glad that I even got to show off my new technique I had worked on. I still need some practice with it, but I think I did good. My head still hurts from where that mean Taillow pulled my hair. He was saying really mean things to me during the battle. Some of those things he said were hurtful, but I remember how Christopher had told me never to listen to the bad things others say to me.

I was relieved when I finally defeated the Taillow. Even though he was rude to me, I still felt a little bad for him. When I grabbed him with my psychic powers, I could feel that he was already tired out from the constant flying and battling, so I was a little gentle when I threw him down. Overjoyed with winning, however, I ran over to Christopher happily gave him a hug.

**"We did it,"** I said.

**"It was you who did all the hard work,"** he said as he pet me on the head.

**"You helped,"** I replied.

**"What's say you take a break and let Beta fight,"** he said.

I was worn out from that battle so I was more than happy to agree. I stood by Christopher's side as he pulled out Beta1's pokeball.

(**Chris's** PoV)

I'm really proud of Naomi for doing well in her first fight. I feel bad that she got a little hurt though, so I'll have to make it up to her later. But for now, I have to deal with this guy.

The trainer, Erin, looked over at us seeming mad. "Are you going to give up now, or do I have to beat you," he said to me, seeming overconfident.

"I wasn't planning to," I retorted calmly, yet with a hint of sarcasm.

Erin started to growl and get agitated. "Lombre, I choose you," he said, sending out his pokémon. It was a green, tall, lanky creature that had a lily pad on its head, and had long, stalk-like legs with claws on the ends of them.

I've heard of these pokémon before, but still held out his pokedex to hear what it had to say about it. "*ding* Lombre, the evolved form of Lotad. It lives along the edges of fresh water where it feeds on small fish and reeds. They have often been depicted in mythology as being responsible for people drowning in rivers."

"Beta1, go!" Beta1 came out making a loud, electrical noise. "Go into attack mode type three." Beta started transforming the shape of his head to resemble a hammer.

Back when I worked at Birch Labs, me and a couple of other assistants there programmed Beta with four different battle styles:

Type one focuses on dodging opponents strikes and striking with quick blows. This tends to be my favorite method, but can usually be bested by faster opponents.

Type two relies almost entirely off of ranged attacks like the psybeam and thunder wave attacks. This works well on flying enemies or ones that are dangerous in close combat.

Type three, the one I'm using now, is taking a direct offensive, using heavy blows and head-on assaults. I haven't had much occasion to use this yet, but I figure that now's a good time to practice it.

And the last one, type four, is a defensive approach. We usually use this form only for sparing practice, but it could always come in handy.

Now Beta1 and my opponent's Lombre looked poised and ready for battle. I figured since I won the last round, I would give Erin the honors of the first strike.

"Lombre, use your water gun," he shouted. His Lombre reared its head back and fired a stream of water from his mouth at us.

"Beta, drive through it with a tackle," I said. The water hit Beta1, but it proved to be no match in slowing him down, as he flew strait threw the blast, hitting Lombre in the face and causing him to swallow a bit of his own water gun attack. "Now hit him while he's stunned." Beta1 raised up his hammer head and slammed it onto Lombre's lily pad.

The attack had caught Lombre off guard, and now he looked dazed from being struck on the head like that. His trainer looked extremely mad and started yelling louder, "Snap out of it Lombre and use fury swipes!" Lombre raised his clawed hands and started trying to slash at Beta1 with them.

"Go into sword mode and counter them with agility," I said. Beta1 changed the shape of his head again to be long, sharp, and pointed. Then with amazing speed, he swiped back at Lombre, countering everyone of his attempts to attack.

"Look for an opening and ram him," I said. Beta1 waited while he continued deflecting the Lombre's swipes until he found his chance. His head quickly changed back to its original shape, and he tackled the Lombre, sending flying into the stream beside us.

"Bad move," Erin said with a grin on his face. "Lombre, now!"

I saw the Lombre rise up out of the water looking a bit revived and with a fierce look in his eyes. He raised back his head and fired out a water gun attack. Only this one seemed a lot stronger than the first one. Of course that's what happens when a water pokémon finds itself in water.

The attack hit Beta1, pushing him back into a tree. The water gun attack continued to pound relentlessly at Beta1 until the Lombre finally ran out of breath. Me and Naomi both looked at Beta1 with worry. I decided to run over and check on him to make sure he was okay.

"Are you alright Beta?" I asked as I helped him back up.

He let out several angry sounding beeps at the Lombre, and then looked at me with a confident look.

"Good to hear," I said. "Use your conversion software; change to ice." Beta1's panels on his body started to glow and change from its pink and light-blue color scheme to be an icy-blue color. It also started to radiate out a cold texture.

Erin and his Lombre both looked amazed by what they were seeing. But then they remembered the battle and went back to the offensive.

"I don't know what your doing," Erin said, "but as long as Lombre's in the water, there's no way to stop us. Lombre, use your water gun again."

Lombre raised his head back again, preparing to blast Beta1 with another water attack. But this time, when it hit, it didn't seem to be pushing back Beta1. He was able to resist it thanks to the type change he received from conversion.

"Power through it with agility and use your tackle," I said. Beta1 launched himself up the stream of water and connected his tackle with Lombre.

"Lombre, use secret power," Erin said. Lombre started doing something weird with his body, and then began manipulating the water to create small waves that he tried using to push Beta1 away, but none of them seemed to be having much affect.

"Beta, knock him out of the water with your psybeam!" Beta1 flew around to Lombre's side and fired his laser beam at point blank range. The resulting blast from the attack launched Lombre back onto land, in front of his trainers feet.

"Come on, you can get up," his trainer shouted at him violently. The Lombre looked exhausted, but he did as his trainer commanded and stood back up, poised to continue fighting.

**"Christopher, I'm worried that Beta1 may be getting a little tired. I'm not sure how much longer he'll be able to keep this up,"** Naomi said to me sounding concerned.

**"Beta's doing fine. But you're right, I need to end this soon,"** I said to her.

**"That Lombre over there is looking even more worn out. And I don't like how his trainer keeps yelling at him. I feel a great amount of anger inside of him."**

**"I can see that too. He needs to calm down or he'll start acting carelessly."**

Beta1 jumped out of the water, over to my side of the field and reverted back to his normal skin texture.

"Lombre, attack with nature power," Erin said. This time, instead of summoning waves, Lombre created sharp, star-shaped disks out of the dust and air to throw at Beta1. The way nature power behaves is based on where you use it, so in the water, it's surf and on land, it's swift.

"Shoot them down with psybeam," I said. Beta1 quickly began targeting each one, from the closest to the farthest disk away, shooting them all down as they came.

Lombre kept firing out swifts from his nature power until Erin ordered him to use another attack. "Jump and use razor leaf," he said. His Lombre stopped his previous attack and went into sending dozens or razor sharp leafs from the lily pad on his head towards Beta1.

Beta1 tried shooting them out of the air as well, but several of them still hit him, leaving scratch marks on his body.

"Now hit him with water gun," Erin said.

"Dodge it with agility," I replied. Lombre fired out his water gun attack, but Beta1's agility made him too fast to hit. The Lombre tried his water gun several more times, but each time they missed. By now, both Lombre and Beta1 were looking tired, so I knew I would have to end this fast.

Erin, having now become furious with me and Beta1, told his Lombre to charge in to try and finish us off with a fury swipes attack.

Lombre unfurled his claws and began running head first with his long arms dragging behind him, leaving claw marks in the ground.

I know Beta1 hasn't taken a ton of damage in this fight, but he's getting exhausted. Meaning that if that Lombre is able to hit him, it may knock him out. "Beta, use sharpen, then strike when you see an opening," I said. Beta1 transformed one of his legs into a long, sharp spear and pulled it back to hit.

As Lombre got close, he raised one of his arms up to strike, leaving it wide open. When Beta1 saw this, he jabbed his spear leg into the enemy's arm, causing the kappa pokémon to scream and pull back with pain. I could see blood dripping from his arm where Beta1 had hit him, and the wound looked pretty bad.

"Now end this with thunder wave," I said. Beta1 charged in up close and fired out a discharge of electricity, paralyzing Lombre and making him fall to the ground.

It was after this, however, that I saw the Lombre was no longer able to battle. But his trainer, refusing to give up, kept screaming at his pokémon to get back up. He started getting really aggressive with the way he was speaking. "GET UP YOU LAZY F***! THE F***! ARE YOU F***ING KIDDING ME!" He continued for several minutes with me, Naomi, and Beta1 watching this poor, tired Lombre struggling to get up to appease his trainer, but the paralysis and pain in his arm kept him from doing so.

At this point, Naomi was looking a little nervously as she hid behind one of my legs. I knew I would have to stop this.

"Hey Beta, do us all a favor and zap him too." Its not that I hate the guy, but this whole time, he's really been getting on my nerves. And what he was doing now, was too far. Beta1 charged up a second thunder wave and electrocuted the trainer, causing him to fall down beside his pokémon in a similar, paralyzed fashion.

"What the *bzzz* was that *bzzz* for***," Erin said, still surging with a little bit of electricity.

I started to speak to him angrily at this point. "First off, your pokémon just got his arm stabbed, and then shocked. It's your job as a trainer to know when to stop fighting and care for your pokémon. And second, you're not only a pokémon trainer, but an adult, so stop acting like some dumbass kid." I realize that I was sounding like a parent, but right now, that doesn't really matter. "If you're not going to treat your pokémon right, then give up being a trainer and go home. Otherwise, pick yourself back up and get over your self."

I walked over to his fallen Lombre and pulled some bandages out of a med pack in my backpack to help stop the bleeding. The Lombre looked very grateful for me helping him. Then I helped his trainer up, who returned his pokémon to its pokeball. He looked down, trying to hide his shame ridden face. He walked off without saying a word, and disappeared into the forest.

Me and Naomi continued down our own path. Neither of us said a word, because we were both lost in thought about earlier with Erin.

"I didn't like that trainer," Naomi said with a cold expression on her face.

"I didn't care for him much either," I said. "I think I now know what you meant, when you said you were afraid of trainers abusing their pokémon."

**"Why was he like that? How could he be so heartlessly cruel?"**

"Some trainers are just like that I guess. Humanity can be a wonderful race sometimes, but often times its just a disgusting mess of selfish desires and ignorance. It almost makes me regret being part of such a despicable race. I hope that he at least learned something from what I told him."

We continued walking silently for a little ways. "Hey Naomi, can you promise me something," I asked?

**"What is it Christopher?"**

"Promise that if I ever start acting like that, you'll have Beta1 shock me as well." The two of us started laughing a little.

Sometime later, we heard someone shouting from behind us. We turned around to see Erin running back towards us. Naomi hid behind my legs, still somewhat afraid of him from earlier. He stopped in front of me and bowed his head down in humility.

"I'm sorry for the way I was acting earlier. You were right, I was acting like a child. Please forgive me for my actions," he said with an earnest sincerity in his voice. He then offered up over one hundred dollars to me. Take it, it's all I've got; you earned it.

I accepted his money and bowed to him as well. We both raised our heads and shook hands before parting our separate ways.

"I'm not going to give up; I'm going to become a better trainer, and a better person. And you may have won this time, but I'll find you, and one day I will beat you," he said with a sound of eagerness in his voice.

"Keep on dreaming," I said with some humor in my voice. "Good luck."

(Oldale Town hospital: **Freeman**'s PoV)

I woke up with a sharp feeling of pain in my stomach. The pain caused me to flinch as I grabbed the area, hoping it wouldn't hurt. Then in a quick memory flash, I remembered getting shot. I opened my eyes to see that I was now in a hospital bed. The room itself wasn't very interesting or colorful in anyway, but I guess I can't complain that I'm here. I looked around my room, only to find the girl I had met in the woods sitting at my bed side with her pikachu.

"Yay, it looks like you're awake finally," she said.

"Hiroka," I said weakly, "what are you doing here?"

A doctor came walking in looking over his clip board. "This young woman here saved your life," he said. "If she hadn't gotten you here sooner, you might not have made it."

Hiroka smiled from the praise the doctor was giving her.

"So how long was I out?"

"Two days," the doctor said.

"But wait, how did you find me," I asked?

"Well, you see," she said blushingly as she looked away, "I was kind of stalking you." She then turned back to me to try and pull a cute and innocent look.

I laughed at the way she said it. I can tell that this girl is a little crazy, but I am grateful for her help. I looked down to see if I couldn't get Blue's pokeball to let him out and see how he was doing. But I didn't see my bag, or Blue's pokeball anywhere.

"Wait, where's Blue?! Where's all of my research," I shouted as I started to panic. But when I started to sit up, the pain from my wound shot up again and made me sit down. I now realized that those two Magma grunts must have stole them.

Hiroka looked a bit down, seeming a little disappointed. "I'm sorry," she said, "but I wasn't able to stop them from taking your stuff. I would have stopped them, but I got scared and remained hidden."

"No Hiroka, it's not your fault," I said. "Thanks for at least saving me."

"Your welcome," she said, appearing to have perked back up. She suddenly had a surge of energy and started pulling on my arm to try and make me sit up, "Now what's say we get out there and go after those thieves together!"

Her making me sit up made my pain shoot up yet again making me let out a small yelp.

She let go of my arm, seeming a little embarrassed. "Oops, sorry," she said.

"Don't worry," the doctor said. "You'll be fully recovered and good in a few more days." Having said that, he decided to leave the room to go get some pain killers for me.

For the next few hours, me and Hiroka talked with each other. I told her about some of my misadventures with Chris back at the labs and she told me about some of her contests she's competed in. So far, she's managed to win one ribbon from Fallarbor Town, which is also her hometown. We also got into various topics from talking about popular t.v. shows and movies to politics and media scandals. The whole time she was very energetic and bouncy, much like when I first met her. It's actually kind of cute.

Eventually, a police detective came in with a sketch artist and asked to speak with me in private. Hiroka understood and waited in the waiting room for a while. They mostly wanted to ask me questions about the people that attacked and robbed me. It seems like this Team Magma group is more infamous than I previously realized. When they finished asking me questions, they left and gave some of the information to the news to release as a public warning. I asked the detective what his name was. I believe it was "Looker."

(Petalburg City: **Chris**'s PoV)

Well, we finally made it back to my hometown, Petalburg. I can't say it's changed much in the couple of months that I've been away. But it does feel good to be back in a familiar area again. Littleroot and Oldale are more rural towns with lots of woods and wilderness surrounding them. But Petalburg, on the other hand, trends towards a more up-scale suburban and partly urban city. There's lots of nice neighborhoods and a lovely central town square. The shopping districts are relatively okay, with most of your selections at major chain stores like Star-Mart. But the main focus of the town is the Petalburg gym, where its leader, Norman battles trainers seeking to win the balance badge. He's noted as being one of the best leaders out there and has even been nominated to become a member of the elite four several times.

**"So is this Petalburg City,"** Naomi asked with a voice of hopefulness?

"Yep, we finally made it," I said in a victorious tone. "Naomi, welcome to my hometown. Welcome to Petalburg City."

She stood there staring at the city with a look of awe and amazement. I also noticed a hint of fear she had in her eyes.

**"It's a lot bigger than I imagined,"** she said.

"Don't worry Naomi, just stick with me and you'll be fine," I said trying to make her feel less afraid.

We both heard our stomaches growling and knew we needed to eat. Especially since we haven't eaten anything decent for several days now.

Many of the restaurants looked extremely crowded, and I wasn't quite sure what kinds of food Naomi liked yet, so I looked for a small sandwich shop since she seemed to have liked the one I gave her. Plus, it wasn't nearly as busy as some other places were, which made Naomi a little more comfortable. As we sat and ate, she had several questions about the city, all of which I answered. Most of her questions were about what people do here or how do stores and restaurants like this one work.

After we finished eating, we decided to go shopping for supplies. It was definitely a different experience from the last time Naomi was in a store with me. For one thing, there were tons of people shopping all around us, so Naomi sat on my shoulders and was extremely shy. She became even more terrified when people would come up to us saying how cute she was and that they wanted to hold her, but I was luckily able to turn them all away. Another major difference this time, was the the stores had everything. They had everything from clothes and toys to food of all variety. I even got in to some trouble at one point when Naomi found a pack of razz berries when I wasn't looking and started eating them. I paid for them, but from this point on, I would need to teach Naomi more a little more about how human society works. But eventually, we were able to gather up plenty of food, as well as other supplies like insect repellent and rope.

It's been a long day, so I figured that since it would be getting dark soon, we should head to the town's Pokémon Center. It was a little crowded, but we were able to have the nurse treat Naomi and Beta1. Naomi was in pretty good condition and just needed to have a little bit of her energy restored on one of the healing units. It only took a few short minutes before she was finished. Beta1 on the other hand wasn't in quite as good condition, due to the the amount of battles and hard training he's been through so far. The nurse said she could have him fixed and ready by tomorrow morning, and was even kind enough to offer us one of the last open rooms in the center. It was a small room with one bunk bed and a small table and chair, but the view out the window was nice.

For the next couple of hours, the two of us sat in the lobby with a couple of other trainers watching the news. A lot of it was on the troubles going on in Kanto with Team Rocket, but after a while, it switched over to a different story. It showed a hospital stating that a pokémon researcher had been attacked and robbed a few days ago. When they showed the victim recovering in the hospital, I immediately recognized him to be Freeman Stan.

(**Naomi**'s PoV)

I could feel a great amount of stress coming out of Christopher when he was watching the news. I read his mind and saw that it was his friend, Freeman who he has told me so much about.

**"Is everything okay Christopher,"** I asked.

Christopher answered back telepathically, **"That's Freeman, the guy I've told you about. Apparently he was shot by a couple of thugs."**

We continued to listen to the story a bit more. A hand-drawn sketch of a man and a woman wearing strange red and black hooded outfits with big M's in the middle of them showed up on screen. The news lady stated that their whereabouts were last reported in Oldale Town heading for Petalburg City, and to use extreme caution if anyone finds them.

Christopher seemed a little unsettled about the news he had received. Looking into his mind, he was debating if he should look for these criminals or not. I could also sense a great deal of worry that they might try to steal me and Beta1 as well. So I decided to try calm him down.

**"Don't worry Christopher, I know you won't let anything bad happen to us. I trust you."**

What I said must have helped, because he smiled and rubbed my hair. **"I see you were reading my mind again,"** he said.

**"I'm sorry,"** I said, thinking that I shouldn't have.

He wrapped on arm around me and gave me a hug. **"Thanks,"** he said. **"Now come on, we should probably be getting to bed."**

That evening, as I laid on top of Christopher, I tried to go to sleep, but I had too much on my mind. It wasn't really on what had been troubling Christopher earlier, or about being in a big city, but it was about that trainer from this afternoon. The way he had treated his pokémon so poorly. I could tell when he came back to apologize afterwards that he had seen the error of his ways, but it began to make me wonder if a lot of, or even most trainers were like that.

I finally fell asleep, but I can't say that it was good. I found myself in a dream scape. Only it was more like a nightmare. I've had a lot of nightmares recently, but this one was different. It was a dark and cold place. I'm not exactly sure where it was, but Christopher was there with me. I didn't like him here though. His body was pouring out colors of anger and hatred. He was abusing and screaming at me, calling me terrible things like useless and worthless. I tried covering up my ears so I couldn't hear him, but his voice still pounded through my head. I could feel my heart pounding rapidly, and it was almost impossible to breath. I was crying and trying to beg him to stop, but my voice seemed gone, like I couldn't say or do anything. And whenever I would try to run away, he would appear in front of me again and beat me down. It was a cruel and terrible nightmare. Also all around us, I could see the eyes and faces of wild Poochyena and Mightyena, like the ones who had attacked my family. They had appeared in my nightmares before, but now the main focus of this dream was Christopher, who continued insulting and beating me. It was horrible in every sense of the word. And finally when he was done, I saw him walk away, abandoning me. When he disappeared, all of the wild dog pokémon became more clear and started leaping towards me to attack. I looked down out of sheer fear when I noticed something wet below me. I was sitting in a pool of blood, with my two parents lying dead on the ground around me. After that, I woke up.

It was still late at night and Christopher was still asleep. My heart was racing with fear, and I was almost afraid to go back to sleep. The images that had been in my nightmare haunted me and were echoing back and forth in my mind. I started to cry a little. I then felt Christopher wrap one of his arms around me to try and comfort me. He has known about me having nightmares, but I haven't told him what they are about. I'm especially debating if I should tell him about this one. I truly hope that he doesn't end up turning into the same Christopher in my nightmare. I eventually fell asleep, and thankfully this time, there was no nightmare.

(The next morning)

I felt the warm sunlight on my face when I woke up this morning. I could still feel Christopher's arm wrapped around me from last night. I still laid here enjoying this for a few more minutes as I knew this may be the last time we sleep in a comfortable bed again for a while. But after a few minutes, I decided to wake up Christopher so we can start our day.

**"Come on Christopher, it's time to get up,"** I said tapping his face a little.

He woke up feeling refreshed and ready to start his day. "Good morning Naomi," he said cheerily. "How'd you sleep?"

I looked down remembering the terrible nightmare I had.

"You had another nightmare didn't you?"

I nodded, trying to hold back any tears. **"This one was different though,"** I said.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

I debated whether I should tell him about it or not. After all, this dream was about him. **"It was about you this time."** I finally worked up the courage to tell him about it. I sent him several flashes from my memory of the dream. They were very painful, and I even started to cry. But then I saw the look of horror on Christopher's face as he was seeing my dream. When I was finished, he just looked down with a huge amount of sorrow in his eyes.

**"Christopher... are you okay?"**

I saw several tears fall from his eyes and he embraced me in his arms. We both cried without either one saying a word for several minutes.

**"Please promise to never hate me,"** I said.

"I promise Naomi," he said, "I will never be your nightmare." I could sense in him that he was being his sincerest when he said those words.

The two of us eventually stopped crying and cheered up. From that point on, the two of us vowed to never turn on one another and to always be there for each other. I realize now that my nightmare was nothing more than just that. Christopher has been there for me since the moment I lost my parents. He's looked after me and kept on trying to earn my trust. I trust that he will never do anything to hurt me intentionally, and I promise to stay by his side always.

(**Chris**'s PoV)

After this morning, I felt like a trust bond between me and Naomi grew stronger. She's only a little girl, so she's become like a little sister to me. But as we've started to travel, she's becoming more like a good friend to me.

We each took separate baths in the shower rooms at the Pokémon Center to clean ourselves up before we would head off. Then, after I finished drying and brushing Naomi's hair, we brushed our teeth, packed up my stuff, and headed downstairs to the main lobby. When I got there, I could see Beta1, looking good as new with his pokeball balanced on top of his head. He seemed glad to see me and rushed over with joy to hand me his pokeball.

"I'm glad to see you're all fixed up. How's it going Beta," I asked with a smile? Beta1 responded with several happy sounding whistles and beeps like he usually does.

The nurse came to greet me. "He's all good to go. Now you take care," she said.

"I will, thank you," I replied.

Afterwards, we headed out to search around town some more for any supplies I might have forgotten. When I was looking around, I happened to look into an ally where I saw two hooded figures. They were dressed just as the news report from yesterday had described: one man and one woman wearing red and black hooded outfits with the letter M written on them. I know it would be dangerous, but they might still have the things they stole from Freeman on them.

"Naomi, stay behind me and keep quiet."

She read my mind and knew what I was doing, so she nodded and tried to be as stealthy as possible.

We followed them closely without being detected around several winding corners, using any trash cans or crates to stay hidden. Listening in on them, it sounded like they were planning to meet with someone to hand over their goods, so I feel more confident in my assumption that they have Freeman's stuff. I was also able to gather that they had only taken his pokémon and his research notes.

The allies that we wandered through were crammed, dark, and narrow. There was lots of moss and mold growing along the sides of the buildings, and the air and ground were very moist. At one point, I accidently stepped in a puddle and made a small but noticeable splash. The two grunts turned around, and I quickly ducked behind a corner, praying that they hadn't spotted us.

"Hey, is someone following us," the man asked?

"I'm sure it's just your imagination," the woman responded. "Now come on, we're already late for the drop off."

"We would've been on time if it hadn't been for the increased security."

After about fifteen minutes of following them, we arrived at some sort of warehouse. We were able to follow them inside without being detected. But when I saw who they were meeting with, I saw that it was an older man wearing a lab coat and rounded glasses. He was tall and had short, dark-grey hair. But what was more noticeable was the two large body guards and their Mightyena's standing by his side. These two guards wore similar outfits to the two grunts, only their outfits had black capes, making them look more intimidating.

**"Naomi, I need you to do a huge favor right now."**

"What is it," she asked?

**"Do you see those metal things on the side of those two grunts and the body guards,"** I asked referring to the guns.

**"I do. Why, what do you need me to do?"**

"Try to focus on all four of them and get them as far away from those people as possible. Do you think you can do that?"

"I can, but I may need a minute." Her eyes began to glow faintly as she prepared her psychic powers and started focusing on the guns.

While she was waiting, I listened in on the conversation between the old man and the grunts. They were trying to work out a deal of trade. The primary focus seemed to be only about how much money they would be getting paid. They finally reached an agreement when they heard several loud noises. They all reached for their guns to pull out, but suddenly realized that they were all gone. Naomi had quietly removed all four guns from their holsters without being noticed and threw them in different directions. Two of them landed on some scaffolding above, one broke through a window, and the last one was thrown into an open crate. The Mightyena grew restless and started snarling as they looked around.

**"Thank you Naomi, great job. Now just stay quiet and wait here."**

Before deciding to reveal myself, I took a moment to swallow any senses of doubt or fear I might have. I stepped out into one of the spotlights that was shining down. The moment I appeared, the Mightyena looked at me and started barking and growling viciously, awaiting their trainers' command to attack.

"Who are you," the old man asked. "Identify yourself."

I pulled out Beta1's pokeball, releasing him, and then introduced myself. "My name is Christopher C. Kamori, and I'm here to stop you."

The two Magma grunts sent out their Poochyena and Zubat, ready for battle.

Me and Beta1 both rushed into battle, as did all four Team Magma members and their pokemon, about to engage in a huge fight.

**Chris is now confronting the Team Magma members that attacked his good friend, Freeman. Only this time, they're being backed up by two stronger Magma members. Will Christopher succeed in defeating them and getting back the stolen goods? Find out on the next chapter.**

**Well I hope you all enjoyed the third chapter. Sorry, but it took a while to finish it. I want to thank the people who have already favorited this story and I encourage more of you to do so. And like always, I plan to release new chapters on Saturdays every one or two weeks depending on my schedule. Again thank you, and have a happy Labor Day.**


	4. Chapter 4

_**Pokémon: Christopher and Naomi**_

**Hey guys, Christopher Kamori here with the release of chapter four in the Pokémon: Christopher and Naomi series. I know you've all been waiting for this so I'm just going to jump straight into it.**

**The following is a non-profit, fan-based fiction. I in no way own anything that is related to Pokémon. Only the original characters and content are mine. Please support the official franchise.**

Chapter four: North Gun and Rose Thorn

(Previously on Pokémon: Christopher and Naomi)

After finally reaching Petalburg City, our heros learned that the pokémon field researcher Freeman had been shot and robbed by members from the infamous Team Magma. Having spotted the two Magma grunts, Chris and Naomi followed them quietly to a warehouse where they seem to be delivering the stolen research notes as well as Blue, Freeman's Mudkip, to a mysterious old man. Naomi, using her psychic powers, disarmed the Magma members of their guns, and now Chris is attempting to confront them.

(**Chris**'s PoV)

Well crap. I had to try to pull this hero stunt didn't I. It seemed like the brave thing to do beforehand, but even without their guns, I'm outnumbered two to seven. Lets just hope Beta1 can hold out.

But there's no turning back now. I guess I'm just going to have to swallow my fear and take whatever's coming my way. Basically, f*** it.

These guys look pretty tough. Especially the two guys with the Mightyenas. There are two tall guys who look like they could each be bouncers, a younger looking guy with some minor stubble who was smaller looking than the first two, and a woman who's hair was hanging out of here hood who had originally accompanied the small guy here. They all seem to be pretty pissed that I interrupted their meeting.

"Who are you," the old man asked as he adjusted his glasses? "Identify yourself." His voice was somewhat weak and raspy, like someone who's been a long-term smoker. Judging by the looks of him, I'd say he looks like he's in his mid-70's, and his lab coat suggests that he either works as a scientist or a researcher.

"Lets just say you took something, and I'm here to get it back," I said.

The other members of the group got even angrier at my comment, but the old man still remained calm and composed.

"Oh I believe I'll be holding onto these for a while," the old man said holding a stack of documents in his hands. "They hold some valuable use to our cause."

I looked a bit confused. After all, Freeman was just taking field notes on wild pokémon he would encounter right?

"How could that data be so important to your cause?"

"That's information you don't need to know. And I believe you've wasted enough of Team Magma's time." He signaled to the other four members to attack me.

"Go ahead. Tell us who you are so we can know what to write on your grave," one of the grunts said.

I quickly released Beta1. He had been watching and listening in on the entire conversation from inside his pokeball, so he knew what to do when he emerged. He initiated his sharpen program and began turning the sides of his face and body to be lethally sharp. I could hear him running scans as he was locking on to all enemies.

I took any remaining feelings of fear or doubt, swallowed them, and prepared to fight. This may be the end for me, so if I'm going out, I'm going to do it while smiling.

"My name is Christopher C. Kamori, and I'm here to stop you."

The two grunts who hadn't had out any pokémon before released a Poochyena and Zubat to assist the other two members' Mightyena. All of the wolf pokémon let out fierce battle howls, and waited for their trainers to give them orders. I guess that's now nine opponents to face.

"Beta, attack mode type one," I ordered. Beta1 acknowledged and poised himself, ready to strike.

The Magma grunts all held out their arms in synch and ordered their pokémon to attack. The three dog pokémon started charging at blinding speed towards us while the Zubat kept its distance. Me and Beta1 both rushed in to battle them head on.

One of the Mightyena came charging directly for me. He lunged at me, tackling me to the concrete floor, and sank his claws dug into my shoulders, drawing some blood. It was painful to say the least, but my main concern at the moment was holding his head back from biting and tearing my face apart. Luckily, I was somehow able to force my feet up and kick him off of me.

I saw the second one try attacking me, but I was able to get up and jump out-of-the-way before he could strike. He ferociously started snapping at me with his jaws, but I kept stepping out of his way before he could bite. After avoiding a half-dozen of his attacks, I finally kicked him in the jaw, and then kicked him a second time in the side, making him jump a few feet away.

His partner got back up, and the two briefly circled me. The two of them both snarled at me, each one waiting for me to give them an opening to strike. Then moments later, one of them jumped on my back, thankfully only biting down on my backpack and not my neck, but its weight caused me to fall. I turned my head to the side so the fall wouldn't break my nose on hitting the ground, though slamming my face onto concrete still hurts pretty bad.

Meanwhile, Beta1 had been dealing with the other two pokémon. The Poochyena ran straight for him with a tackle, but Beta1 quickly slid to the side and charged in with his own tackle. He then followed his attack up with using his bladed edges to cut at the enemy dog pokémon. The Poochyena was barely able to get out of the way and had several cut marks on his side.

Suddenly, the Zubat swooped down with its wing attack, hitting Beta1 in the side of the head, although it didn't seem to have phased him much. He turned to the Zubat and began firing out a barrage of psybeams. The Zubat did its best to evade the streaks of energy beams being fired at him until he flew behind some industrial piping for cover.

The Poochyena used Beta1's moment of distraction to land an attack. He jumped onto Beta1's back and started biting and scratching up his hull. Beta1, having remembered when he faced this in one of his earlier battles, discharged a thunder wave attack from his body. The electrical burst knocked the Poochyena off and left him struggling on the ground from paralysis.

The Zubat flew back around from its cover to try and land a second sneak attack. Only by this point, Beta1 was using his motion tracking technology to detect Zubat's movements and dodged the attack. And when the enemy Zubat u-turned around to strike again, Beta1 launched a powerful psybeam, knocking the small bat pokémon unconscious.

Beta1 now notice me being pinned down by the two Mightyena. I was trying to shake the first one off my back while, at the same time, trying to keep the second one from jumping on to me as well. Beta1 engaged his agility drive and sped up to rush over and knock the Mightyena on my back off. His force of impact sent the wolf pokémon flying into a storage crate.

With me now able to get up, I prepared for the second Mightyena who was looking like he was going to try another attack. He let out a fierce howl, and began sprinting at me. I pulled back my fist, and waited for him to get close. Then, when he jumped to try and pounce me like the first one, I slammed my fist into his nose. My punch made him fall a little ways onto the ground and look staggered for a moment. He walked back letting out a small whimper towards his trainer, along with the other pokémon.

The four Team Magma members were all boiled with anger now, and looked like they were going to join the fight. Me and Beta1 were barely able to fight off four pokémon, but now we have to face four tough looking gang members as well?

There would be no hope if I couldn't think of anything fast. My clothes were torn to shreds and I was bleeding in several parts of my body where I had been bitten and scratched at. And Beta1 had a couple of good-sized dents and scratches on him as well. I could see a few wires sticking out of is side, and one of his eye bulbs was flickering. And both of us were sore and exhausted.

I heard the old man from earlier clapping. I thought he would have used the battle as a distraction to escape, but apparently he decided to stay and gloat. He stepped into one of the spotlights from overhead and lit a cigarette.

"Well done," he said. "You've put up a good fight, but I believe this is where it ends."

Just as he was finishing saying that, I heard several of the glass windows in the warehouse break. Several ropes came flying from outside over the now broken windows as several people came climbing down them. When I saw them, they were all wearing black and white, striped t-shirts, blue pants, and matching bandanas with a sort of A mark on them. There must have been a dozen of them, each armed with various guns from simple pistols to sub-machine guns and assault rifles. They formed a line behind me and all aimed their weapons towards Team Magma.

From the middle of them came one guy who I assume was their leader. He was heavy built and muscular, with a short, scraggly beard, and he almost looked like a biker. His uniform was similar to the other people with him, only he wore a torn-up vest and a pair of sunglasses. And he was armed with a large revolver on his side and a shotgun strapped to his back.

"No. Why'd they have to send agent North after us," I heard one of the Magma grunts mutter with fear.

"So, I hear you dirty rats have some data for me," he said.

At this point, me and Beta1 were already slipping out of these guys way. We made our way behind some crates where Naomi had been hiding. She was relieved to see that I had made it out okay. But there was no time for celebration, as we now watched anxiously to see what would happen next.

"I should have known Team Aqua would find us here," the old man said.

"I'm not playing old-timer, give me the data or else," North said with a serious tone.

The old man held out the documents he had been given and looked like he was going to hand them over. But at the last second, he turned around and tried running away. He didn't make it far, however, as North quick-drew a revolver from his side and shot him down.

After that, the rest of his men began opening fire on the remaining Team Magma members. The loud gunfire echoed through the warehouse. Them and their pokémon all started scattering as they tried to get away. But from what I saw, they were all slaughtered, man and pokémon alike. I felt Naomi cling to my side and bury her face in my shirt as to look away from the onslaught. I too couldn't stand the sight of the bloodshed, and turned away as well. I did my best to try to keep Naomi calm until the gunfire ended, but even afterwards she was still trembling.

"Are you okay Naomi," I asked quietly?

She looked up at me still quivering a little and nodded. **"All those people..."**

"I know. It's over now."

I looked back up to see what was happening when North began to speak.

"All right, good job Team Aqua," he said to the men. "Lets clear out and head back to head quarters. MOVE OUT!"

The other men saluted him and said, "Sir, yes sir," in unison.

When they all left, he stayed behind to go inspect the old man's body.

"Now lets see about those files you're carrying," North said. But as he reached down next to the corpse to pick the documents up, a grappling hook came down from one of the upper catwalks and grabbed the papers right from under his fingers.

The documents were pulled up to a thin woman who wore glasses, and had long, brown hair with red streaks in it. She wore a black trench coat that covered most of her body, a pair of black, leather gloves, a matching pair of boots, and a red scarf that had the Team Magma emblem on it. In her hands now were the documents that had originally been stolen from Freeman.

"Well, well. It's been a long hasn't it North Gun," she said, putting away the grapple gun she used to swipe the files.

North looked to her with a somewhat irritated look, but was accompanied by a smile. "Rose Thorn, I thought you were still locked up in Lilycove."

"Lets just say the food there was better than security. Do you really think I wouldn't have escaped," she responded playfully.

"Look beautiful, as much as I'd love to chit-chat, I've got a deadline to meet. Hand over the documents," he said as he pointed his revolver at her.

"Well if you want it, you'll have to take it," she replied with a bit of a seductive tone.

"You always have to make it difficult, don't you?"

She winked at North and began running away. He tried shooting at her several times with his revolver, but she was too fast and managed to get away. North then went running after her. Me and Naomi followed them, curious to see how things would turn out. But we kept our distance as we were in no condition to be fighting.

But before heading out, I quickly went over to search the old man's body. In one of his coat pockets was a pokeball that had Freeman's signature written on the bottom. I pressed a small button on the back to see inside of the pokeball, and in it was a weakened, but still living Mudkip. I switched the pokeball to condensed mode and stuck it in my backpack to keep it safe.

(**North**'s PoV)

I can't say I'm surprised to see Rose interfering with us again. Meetings between us like this seem to be a regular thing. I'm told to pick something up, she steals it right from under me, and we fight to see who gets it. It's kind of become our little game.

The last time we fought was back in Lilycove City. I was going to steal the power core from the city's lighthouse, but by the time I got there, she was already taking it. We fought over it for about a half-hour, with each of us managing to take the battery from one another back and forth. Until finally the cops arrived. I stuck it to her and ran, letting her be the one to get arrested.

I chased her out to the parking lot in the back of the building, where a couple of cars were still parked. I tried taking a couple of shots at her, but she ducked behind one of the cars. She then returned fire at me with a pistol. I was able to side step a few of the bullets, but I could swear that one of them grazed me beard. Trying to get out of her line of fire, I jumped behind the nearest car I could find. The two of us continued to exchange fire back and forth, but neither of us could get a clear shot. By this point, I realized I needed some back-up.

"Nail, come on out," I said, releasing my Cacnea from its pokeball. Nail's a short but sturdy, cactus pokémon with various sized spikes covering his body. His primary weapon is his two, mace-like arms, but he also a variety of seeds from the several small, round mouths he has. He's been in several battles with me over the years, and has become one of my most trusted partners. I've trained him to be great with both long-range fire, and close combat. And like all of my pokémon, I've trained him with to use the best tactic there is: beat the crap out of everything. This is kind of ironic, as Rose's tactics are always based more on cunning and stealth.

When Nail emerged, he puffed up his chest to make himself look tougher, and awaited my command. "Nail, it's Rose again. I need you to try to take her out with a pin missile attack." Nail did a quick salute to me and began firing countless, needle-like blasts from the spikes on his arms into the air. The needles rained down across the parking lot, some stabbing into the pavement, and others breaking car windshields, setting off their alarm systems.

I thought I saw Rose run out from behind her car to get away, but when I shot her, she faded away, like she was never there. I saw several others go running out as well, but each of them would disappear as soon as me or Nail would shoot at them. Taking a closer inspection, I noticed that each one had her Sableye, Gemini, on her back. It's a small, devilish creature who's kind tends to live in dark caves. They have large, diamond eyes, razor-sharp claws, and are excellent diggers. She had trained hers to make illusions of itself and her to try to confuse people like me. A pretty clever move, but not one that I haven't seen from her already. She suddenly sent out several illusions of herself and tried running to escape, so I knew I'd have to act fast.

"Come on Nail, lets MOVE!" The two of us ran out and started attacking all the mirages to try to find the real one. I blew through two clips of ammo in my revolver while Nail blasted them with pin missile and bullet seed. One by one, the illusions started to fade away until I finally caught up with the real Rose. I pointed my gun at her, and knowing she couldn't escape stopped and threw her hands up.

"Alright. You got me," she said.

"Just hand over the data and we can walk away."

"So how many bullets did you fire on that last clip?"

I froze up, realizing what she was insinuating. I popped open the barrel to see that I was out of bullets.

She let out a small laugh, "How predictable that you would run out of bullets."

"Not this time," I retorted as I pulled out my shotgun. And no sooner than I pulled it out did she reach into her trench coat and pull out her pistol. We both fired at one another, with her bullet hitting my side a little and mine breaking her pistol right out of her hand.

Nail tried to jump in and help with his trademark needle arm attack, but her Sableye jumped off her back and blocked it with detect. I pumped my shotgun and tried firing at her a few more times, but she evaded each shot until she got close enough to kick me in the face. I felt my nose bleed a little from where she hit me, but I just wiped it off and focused on trying to hit her. I raised the back of my gun and tried hitting her, but she was able to roll behind me. She pulled out a small knife and tried stabbing me in the back, but I quickly raised my arm to block it, and then used my other hand to knock the blade out of her hand. I almost connected a punch to her, but she stepped back just in time and jumped several feet away. I raised my shotgun to try to hit her again, but she pulled out her grapple gun from earlier to grab it out of my hands into the air.

"Gemini, use cut," she said. Her Sableye, who had been fighting with Nail, jumped over to my shotgun while it was still in midair and used its sharp, blade-like arms to slice it clean in half.

"Damn it Rose, that was my good shotgun."

She pulled out a pokeball from one of her pockets and held it out. "Well since it looks like we're both out of guns, how about we finish this the old fashion way."

Nail ran and stood by my side as I pulled out a pokeball from my belt. "You're on. Come on out Crow." I released my Banette, Crow. He looks like a grey, worn out rag doll, but he's definitely something more. He has a zipper mouth that always stays closed, but I still hear evil laughs come from it. Whatever's inside of there is something evil, but I like it. He was my first pokémon I ever got, and has easily been my best partner in crime. He let out a sinister chuckle as he stood beside me and Nail, ready for battle.

"Ammy, Camille, let's go," Rose said releasing two more pokémon. Ammy was her white Ninetales, a rare fire fox pokémon with nine long, majestic tails. That thing's always pulling out weird tricks and illusions on me. And Camille is her Mawile, which is one of her deadliest pokémon. I'm not quite sure what it is, but it has an almost human form with a large, steel, toothy jaw that hangs off of the back of its head. From what I know, she's been training that thing longer than any other pokémon. The two of them stood in front of her alongside her Sableye. I'm out numbered two to three, so I'm not sure how I'll be able to beat her.

(**Chris**'s PoV)

Me and Naomi have been watching the battle from behind one of the ally ways. This fight has been getting pretty intense. I even had to duck and dodge a couple of stray bullets heading our direction.

This doesn't look good for North. He needs help, and I do owe him one for helping me out earlier. But Beta1's too weak right now to battle, so if I do decide to jump in, I'll have to take Naomi with me.

"Hey Naomi..."

**"I know,"** she said. She must have read my mind.

"So do you think you're up for a fight?"

She nodded, and the two of us ran out to help.

North looked at me a bit surprised. "You again, what do you want."

"Just returning the favor for you helping me out earlier," I said.

"Don't think I need your help on this one kid. I've got this. Nail, bullet seed, and Crow, use night shade." His two pokémon started firing out a wave of sharp, rapid-fire seeds and pulses of dark energy.

"Dodge them," Rose said. Both her and her pokémon jumped, ducked, and rolled across the parking lot with extreme agility. "Now Gemini, fury swipes, and Camille, vice grip." The two pokémon began to rush towards North's with incredible speed, continuing to dodge the bullet seeds and night shades being fired at them. Her Mawile clamped its large jaws on the back of its head to North's Banette, and her Sableye began furiously tearing at Cacnea's body. North's pokemon now struggled to try to shake off their opponents attacks.

North grew more agitated, "Nail, fight back with needle arm. Crow, pry the thing off with shadow claw.

As Rose's Sableye was scratching at Cacnea, he swung his spiked arms around, throwing the shadow fiend pokémon off. He then followed up by raising his arm and crashing it down on top of Sableye. But Cacnea was just a little too slow, and his opponent managed to get out-of-the-way and run back to Rose.

Meanwhile, Banette was struggling to get the Mawile's iron jaw trap off of him. He managed to jab his claws up into the sides of the mouth that was biting him, and tried to pry it open. But it was no use, Mawile wasn't letting go.

North ran over and grabbed the Mawile, as he tried to help free his Banette. The Mawile struggled and fought to try to make North let go, but proved no good.

"Oh no you don't," Rose yelled. "Ammy, use fire spin." Her Ninetales's tails had an aura glow around them, and then it fired out a powerful, spiraling blast of flames at North. But even in the face of the attack, he still tried freeing his partner.

"Naomi, stop the attack with confusion," I said. Her eyes gave off a faint, purple glow, and then the fire stopped in midair. "Now send it back at them." She raised her arms and did a throwing motion, throwing their fire spin back at them. When the fire hit the ground, it exploded out, setting the surrounding area on fire for a short moment. It even made a few of the cars explode.

Rose had ran back a little ways to avoid the fire, and I didn't see her Sableye anywhere. But the Ninetales stood in the center of where the fire had impacted. It didn't seem to be hurt at all, but instead looked even stronger, and pretty mad as well. Its tails all now were bursting with an aura of energy.

Rose smiled and let out a faint chuckle. "Fools. You should have stayed out of this. Ammy, use your quick attack and iron tail. Her Ninetales let out a sharp roar and ran at a blinding speed for Naomi. Its tails all shimmered with an aura again. Only this time, the tails were all poised to strike.

Naomi stared terrified at the fox pokémon and saw how fast it was moving towards her. It darted one of the tails at her, but in a quick moment, she created a few illusions of herself with double team to try and dodge the attack. The first tail missed, leaving a deep mark in the concrete where it hit. She was also able to dodge several of the other tails, but the seventh one managed to strike, throwing her back several feet. She now laid on the ground unable to get up. All of the Ninetales's tails were glowing again, and it was going to strike her with all nine of them at once.

"Naomi no!" I shouted. Without a moment of hesitation, I ran over and shielded her from the attack with my body. When the Ninetales's iron tail stuck me, it was like a brief moment of feeling nothing, followed by the agonizing, burning pain of the hit. You could see the back of my shirt, torn with blood coming out from where I was hit. The cuts weren't deep, but the pain was still intense. I could only help but scream in pain as I was still protecting Naomi.

(**North**'s PoV)

I was still battling against Rose's other two pokémon. I was finally successfully in forcing Mawile's mouth open to free Crow, and my ghost doll pokémon used its shadow claw attack to send it flying.

"Nail, blast Mawile with your pin missile, and Crow, use shadow ball," I ordered. Crow charged up an orb of dark energy and fired it at Mawile, while Nail launched several spikes from its arms.

The Mawile leaped over Crow's attack and used its metal jaw as a shield to protect it from the pin missile attack.

Suddenly, that Sableye popped out of the ground from under Nail and hit him with a hard punch. I guess it must have learned dig.

"Nail, use your leech seed." Out of Nail's mouth came several somewhat large seeds that stuck to the Sableye. The seeds then busted open, revealing a large web of vines that trapped Sableye and began draining it of its energy.

Rose, seeing that her Sableye was no longer able to fight, returned it to its pokeball.

I suddenly heard a loud crack followed by a scream of pain. I looked over to see that the kid had been struck by Ninetales's iron tail. I've had several of my men fall to the tails of that beast before. I looked and saw the Ninetales standing over the kid and his Ralts with blood dripping from the tips of its tails.

"Ammy, end him with fire spin," Rose shouted out. Her Ninetales's tails glowed with a distinct aura around them and I could see fire begin dripping from its lips as it prepared attack.

(**Naomi**'s PoV)

I don't know what I should do. Christopher's in too much pain to move and I don't have enough energy to stop this fire spin like the last one. I can feel the heat coming off of the fox right now. Its heart is radiating with a sense of revenge for me countering its attack earlier.

**"Christopher, I'm sorry. I don't think we're going to make it."**

"It's okay Naomi... you did your best... I'm just sorry I couldn't protect you better."

"It's okay, you did your best too."

I held onto Christopher as tight as I could and closed my eyes, knowing this would be the end for us. But just as the fire spin from the Ninetales was about to hit us, my body began to glow. I was thinking of anywhere else we could be right now; anywhere. And suddenly, I let out a bright, but short, flash making us disappear. It felt as if for a brief moment, we were falling, and then we hit the ground.

I looked up and realized that we had somehow moved to the other side of the parking lot near North and his pokémon. He looked shocked to have seen us suddenly appear next to him.

The Ninetales had barely let out any of its flames when it noticed we were no longer in front of it. It looked around confused for a moment, wondering where we had gone, then caught sight of us and started growling.

"Nail, seed bomb. Crow, dark pulse," I heard North say to his pokémon. The Cacnea fired a barrage of seeds that let out small explosions when the hit the side of Ninetales's face. Then a large, shadowy pulse from the Banette blasted it, knocking it to the ground. It got back up and slinked back over to its trainers feet. She then proceeded to return it, along with her Mawile back into their pokeballs.

"What's wrong, out of tricks," North asked with a tone of victory.

"I still have a few up my sleeve," Rose retaliated with a mysterious smile on her face.

"Well you're not getting away this time," North said.

"Oh really," Rose asked?

Me, Christopher, and North all knew she was planning something. But we weren't expecting what she was about to do. She threw off her trench coat, revealing that she was wearing nothing but underwear beneath it. All of our faces turned red at the sight, and I turned away from embarrassment. North and Christopher stared dumbstruck by her.

"Men," she said as she proceeded to run away. She jumped up the nearest fire escape and ran across the rooftops, making her escape with the stolen documents.

"Damn it," North said, "she would pull something like that."

After that, there was an awkward silence, and we all sat still. A few moments later, we snapped back to normal and North helped me and Christopher up.

"Okay," he said. "Just who the hell are you and what were you doing here?"

"I'm Chris and this is Naomi," Christopher said, introducing us.

North shook his hand. "North Gun, admin for Team Aqua."

"The person those documents were stolen from is a personal friend of mine," Christopher stated. "We were just lead here by a couple of those grunts."

"Well you sure have some guts taking on Team Magma by yourself. I have to say, nice job. But don't think this makes us allies. If you interfere with Team Aqua's business again, you'll have to pay the price." His voice was sounding a bit darker now, but I didn't sense any hatred in him.

He walked to the end of the parking lot where a black and blue motorcycle with a Team Aqua A was parked. He got on it and drove away.

"Well, at least it's not too bad," Christopher said. "We're still alive, we got back Blue, and I think you learned teleport. How'd you do that anyways?"

**"I'm not sure,"** I said. **"I think it was just an accident."**

"Well, we'll work on mastering that. But for now, I'm just going to limp to the hospital."

While we fought a tough battle today, I have a feeling that it's the start of something bigger.

**And there you have it. The end of chapter four. I hope you enjoyed the introduction of two more original characters. I've been planning to introduce them from the beginning. Remember, if you like this story you can favorite it and follow me. I've been working really hard this week to get this chapter out to you guys on time, so I might not be able to update my next chapter right on schedule next week. Either way, thank you guys for reading this. I'm Christopher Kamori, and I hope to see you again next chapter.**


	5. Chapter 5

_**Pokémon: Christopher and Naomi**_

**Hello people and welcome back for another episode of Pokémon: Christopher and Naomi. I'm sorry that this chapter's not as long as the last few chapters, but it's still good. I'd just like to thank the person who left me several reviews this last week. I really appreciate that. And I'd also like to thank the people who have favorited the story so far. That helps make the story more popular so more people can read it. But enough self-advertisements. I know that most of you don't like having to read long introductions, so I'll just leave my disclaimers up and let you enjoy the story.**

**The following is a non-profit, fan-based fiction. I in no way own anything that is related to Pokémon. Only the original characters and content are mine. Please support the official franchise.**

Chapter five: Recovery

(Petalburg City: **Naomi**'s PoV)

We got to the pokémon Center today by midafternoon. Walking over here was painful for Christopher, due to his injuries, but he wanted to make sure that we would be taken care of first. But when we walked into the Pokémon Center, the nurse attending the front desk was horrified at the look of him. The battle we had fought left him looking beaten and exhausted. His clothes were blood stained and covered in tears and rips, revealing several scratches and bruises. But his back was the worst from where that Ninetales had hit him with a fierce iron tail attack. I could still see blood dripping from the wounds a little.

The nurse ran from behind her desk over to us. "Oh my, what happened?" she asked.

"Please... can you take care of... my pokémon for me?" he asked, sounding out of breath. He reached into his pocket and pulled out Blue and Beta1's pokeballs to hand to her.

"Of course," she said, accepting the pokeballs. "Do you need me to call an ambulance for you?"

"Yes please..." Christopher said gratefully. After that, he collapsed on the floor. "Ow," he moaned.

**"Christopher, are you going to be alright?"** I asked him concernedly.

"I'll be okay Naomi," he said, giving me a thumbs up. "Don't worry about me." Even in his suffering, he was still trying to keep up the happy and relaxed nature I had come to know.

**"Should I come with you?"** I asked.

"No... you should stay here and get some... rest. Don't worry... I should be back by tonight... I promise." He then flinched a little in pain.

**"Okay,"** I said nodding.

After a couple of minutes, the paramedics arrived to take Christopher away. Once they left, the nurse escorted me to the back where she would treat my wounds. Without Christopher around, I was a lot more nervous. But I knew he'd keep his promise.

I was taken to a room that had a supply cabinet and a long, metal bench for me to sit on. It was a little cold, and the overhead lights made the room feel less comfortable, but it wasn't too bad. I met a nice Chancey who helped me relax. She made some friendly conversation with me while she ran a basic physical examination on me. She had apparently been taught to write, as she was able to fill out a medical chart on a clipboard, which she handed to the nurse after she walked in.

The nurse walked over to a machine of some sort sitting in the corner and set the two pokeballs containing Blue and Beta1 inside of it. She then turned it on and it began glowing and flashing lights. I'm not quite sure what the machine does exactly, but from what I understand, it heals the pokémon from inside their pokeballs. After that, she took the clipboard from the Chancey and looked it over for a minutes.

"Okay, now lets see about you," she said in a friendly tone. "It says here that you just received a couple of bruises; so no big deal. We'll have you fixed and good to go and no time."

She walked over to the cabinet and pulled out a green, square-shaped bottle with a strange liquid inside of it. She told be that it was called a medicine they call full restore, and warned me that it might sting a little. She held the front of the bottle near my upper arm where I had been hit and sprayed some of it on the wound. It burned at first, causing me to flinch and pull my arm back. But after a few more sprays, it started to feel a little better. She sprayed some more of the medicine on a few other areas as well. Overall, the medicine relieved any pains or aches I had felt. Once she was done with that, she wrapped my upper arm in bandages, put a band-aid over a bruise on my left cheek, and said I was good to go.

When the nurse let me leave, the Chancey from earlier met me in the hallway outside. She offered me a few snacks and a drink, which I appreciated since I was feeling a little hungry.

"Take good care of yourself," she said in a joyful and happy tone.

"Okay, I will," I replied.

Beta1 and Blue would still have a while before they would be ready, so I decided I would wait in the lobby for them. It was a little intimidating, seeing as there were several other trainers coming in to have their pokémon healed. I sat over in a chair in the corner of the room, hoping none of them would take too much notice of me. And after a while, I saw a few trainers glancing over at me, but I did my best not to make eye contact with them. To keep myself busy, I looked over some magazines that were in a stand next to a wall. I couldn't really read what they're saying, since I don't know how to read; but the pictures in them looked nice. After a few hours, the Chancey from earlier came up to me with two pokeballs on a tray.

"Here you go," she said handing me the two pokeballs. "They're all good and set to go."

"So how were they?" I asked.

"The Mudkip was okay, he just needed his stamina restored. But the Porygon seems to have taken a good couple of hits. It was no trouble though. Our machines were able to bring him back to 100%!"

I smiled with a little relief. "I'm sure Christopher will be glad to hear that."

With having Beta1 and Blue healed, I asked Chancey if the Pokémon Center had any open rooms left for me and Christopher to stay the night. She went to check on it and came back a few minutes later with a small key attached to a card. She said they still had a few vacant rooms left in the upstairs level, and had already put us down for one of them. I didn't know how I would be able to repay her for the kindness she's given me so far, but she seemed to be happy simply seeing me smile.

I really didn't want to spend any more time in the lobby with so many trainers around, so I made my way up to our room to wait for Christopher. I reached the top of the stairs and walked around the corner where the entire wall on the left was covered with large glass panes to see out over the city. By now it was getting dark, so the streets were lit with thousands of lights from lamp posts, shops, and apartments. It was really quite a stunning view. And on the other side of the hallway was dozens of doors spaced out for each room travelers and trainers could stay in. But towards the end of the hall were three pokémon trainers, all boys. A tall, skinny one, a fat one with spiky hair, and a short one with orange streaks in his hair. They noticed me, and I saw them start talking to one another. It was hard to hear them, but I was able to make out that they were talking about me.

"Hey, would you look at that. It's a Ralts," the skinny one whispered.

"I don't remember seeing one of in Kanto," the fat one said.

"That's because they're not from Kanto," the short one said, "and from what I know, they're really rare in Hoenn."

"It doesn't look very strong," the fat one replied.

"No, but it certainly would be good to make a ton of dough off of," the skinny one said with a grin on his face.

"But we're in a Pokémon Center, so she's probably already been caught," the fat one said sounding disappointed.

The short one held up his pokedex towards me. He looked at it for a few seconds and then looked back to his friends. "Guess what fellas, according to the pokedex, this one isn't registered to a pokeball. So it's fair game for us. Plus, it's already injured, meaning this will be easy for us."

I stepped back in terror, knowing what they were probably going to do. They all faced me, and the short one pulled a pokeball out from around his belt.

"Sorry to say this Ralts, but your mine!" he shouted as he engaged the pokeball.

I tried running away, but I turned around to see that the pokeball was coming at me to fast to get away. I closed my eyes knowing what was about to happen, when I heard the distinct and familiar sound of a pokeball releasing a pokémon. After that, I heard the sound of something, almost like glass, shatter. When I opened my eyes, I saw that Beta1 had come out and smashed the pokeball in midair. When he landed on the ground, he looked at the trainers angrily and converted his body be a bright yellow with black lightning bolts on his head and body. I could see small bits of static flowing around his body as he let out several aggressive screeches.

The three trainers looked stunned by what they were seeing.

"What's this?" the fat one said looking confused. "A pokémon using a pokémon?"

The short one pulled a pokeball off of his belt and raised it up. "Well it looks like this thing wants to battle. Let's say we give it what he wants." The other two pulled pokeballs out of their belts and raised them up.

But just as they were about the release their pokémon, Beta1 released a huge surge of electricity at them, knocking them to the ground and leaving them paralyzed. They all got back up a minute later, still trembling with static coming off of them, and they began to back off.

"Hey... take it easy," the skinny one said nervously. "We were... just kidding. Right guys?" The other two, looking equally as scarred nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, no hard feelings, right?" the short one said.

But Beta1 didn't buy their apologies and let out another discharge at the ground near them to scare them off. The three trainers all screamed and ran away in fear of being electrocuted again. I could hear them falling down the flight of stairs on the other side of the hallway, as they fought to be the first one out. Once they left, Beta1's body reverted back to its normal state, and he now seemed a lot less agitated.

I ran over and hugged his face, thanking him for saving me. He replied to me with a sunny look and played a short victory jingle.

We walked down the hallway, checking all the doors until we found the one with symbols on it that matched the card attached to the key that Chancey gave to me earlier, 236. I was too short to reach the door lock, but Beta1 was nice enough to give me a lift up to it. I turned the key until it let out a small click, then turned the handle opening the door. The room inside was similar to the one we stayed in the last time we were here, only this room had a bunk bed and no windows. At least the bunk bed was a nice addition, as it would give Blue a comfortable bed of his own to sleep on. Speaking of which, I decided it would be a good time now to release him and introduce myself.

I pulled out his pokeball and opened it up, releasing a flash of light from which Blue emerged. I've never seen a Mudkip before, so he looked very interesting to me. He stood slightly taller than me, and had stubby, amphibious body with smooth, blue colored skin that had a few darker colored spots on his sides He had a long fin on both his tail, and on top of his head And on the sides of his face were two orange cheeks with rubbery points sticking out of them. They seemed to puff up a little and contract with his breaths. And the way he walked around was almost like small leaps or hops. He looked around the room for a moment with a blank expression on his face, then turned to look at me and Beta1. Immediately recognizing Beta1, he walked over to greet him.

The language he was speaking to Beta1 with was a dialect of marsh tongue. I only knew how to speak Eastern Mystic and I could speak English telepathically, so I couldn't understand what he was saying. But whatever he seemed to be saying was in a positive and jolly tone. Beta1 would respond to the things he would say with different sounding beeps and whistles. And while I couldn't understand a word either of them was saying, they understood each other perfectly. I could only assume that Beta1 was explaining to him how we came about rescuing him. They talked for several minutes longer until finally Blue turned and looked at me.

"Bonjou jenn ti. Mwen swete pou ou menm Et compagnons ou pou au m' depi m' kaptire yo a. Ki moun mwen gen tout onè de adrese?" he said to me. I'm not sure what he said, but I could sense was saying it in an earnest and respectful tone.

"Please forgive me," I said to him, "but I can't understand what you're saying."

He looked at me confused for a second, then looked over to Beta1 for a moment. "Beta1, ta ou te fè se konsa: di mwen, lang li pale? Mwen gen yon lè déterminer si se pati lès mystic ou pal franse."

Beta1 let out several varying beeps, and Blue nodded to him. He looked back over to me and looked as if he were trying to find the right words to say, then after about a minute spoke.

"Hello," he said in my language. "Forgive, but I speaking less Eastern Mystic like you. I say thanks you and friends for help me away from people. I ask what name you are?" Even though he struggled with speaking the Mystic language, I appreciated his effort, and I could still see that he was being earnest in the way he spoke.

"My name's Naomi," I said to him, "and we were more than happy to help you. It was really Beta1 and Christopher who did all the work." He didn't seem to understand much of what I said to him other than my name and Beta1 and Christopher's. It was actually me saying Christopher's name that caught his attention the most.

"I know Christopher. Was with friend mine, Freeman," he said. "Again, mèsi, thank you."

After that, he made a little more small talk with me, and Beta1 was at least able to translate what I said to him. I asked him how he could understand Beta1, and from what I was able to pull together, he learned the binary language that Beta1 speaks during his time at Professor Birch's lab.

By about an hour later, Blue had settled down and was resting quietly on the bottom bunk and Beta1 was running some software updates while I sat quietly doing some meditation to help calm my mind. I was trying to clear my mind and focus on the energy of as many people and pokémon in the Pokémon Center as possible when I sensed Christopher's energy. I could see him entering the Pokémon Center and asking the nurse which room he needed to go to. A minute later, he made his way up the stairs and walked down to our room. As I felt him draw closer, I watched the door anxiously to see how he was doing after his visit to the hospital.

(**Chris**'s PoV)

Well that could have gone better. The good news for me is that they were able to bandage up most of my wounds with the exception of my back. No; for that, they needed about a hundred staples in order to close up the wounds. And the bad part about that is that they're guaranteed to scar up. And on top of that, I have to wear this cast where I sprained my arm for a week. I'm pretty sure that will get in the way. But, all things considered, I should be lucky I didn't pass out from blood loss or end up with any concussions. Lets just hope that Naomi and Beta1 came out better.

It was nightfall by the time I arrived at the Pokémon Center. At least this is their least busy time of day, so there wasn't that long of a line to the service counter. There was only a few trainers picking up their pokémon. When I got to the counter, the nurse recognized me from earlier and greeted me in a very positive tone.

"Hello, and welcome back," she said. "I hope you're recovery went well."

"It did, thank you," I replied. "So how did my pokémon come out?"

"They did fine," she said. "Your Porygon and Mudkip made a full recovery. Although I would ask you to lay off of the heavy training and battles for your Ralts for a few days. Her body just needs to rest."

"Don't worry, I will," I said to her. Naomi has been through a lot recently; all of us have. So I think we could use a break. Then once we're fully rested, we'll continue our training.

"So where are they now?" I asked.

"Oh, I already signed you up for a room for the night," she said. "You'll find them there. It's room 236, just upstairs."

"Thank you," I said. "I really appreciate you doing this for me."

When I got upstairs, I walked down the hall way, looking at the number on each door until I finally reached mine. I felt the handle to check if it was unlocked, and opened it up. Inside, Blue was sleeping on the foot of the bed, and Beta1 and Naomi were both still awake. Naomi seemed to have been waiting for me with great anticipation, and was very happy to see me. But when she saw all the bandages covering me, as well as the sling that my arm was in, she looked a little worried.

**"Christopher, you're back,"** she said with a smile on her face. Looking at her, I could see some bandages that had been wrapped around one of her arms and ankles, as well as a square-shaped band-aid on her left cheek. **"How are you feeling right now?"**

"Well, I'm still a little sore and aching, but I think I'll manage. How about you?"

**"I'm fine. I just had a couple of scratches and bruises."** She started to look down a little, then ran over and hugged my leg. **"Don't ever scare me like that again,"** she said, sounding almost like she was going to cry.

I kneeled down to her and returned the hug. "Hey, don't cry," I said wiping a tear off of her cheek. "I'm sorry I made you worry so much. I promise, from now on, I'll be more careful." When I said that, she cheered up a little and smiled again.

Blue, who had now woken up, looked a little surprised at first to see me, but then remembered me from when I worked at the Birch Labs. He jumped out of bed and ran over to me to greet me with several polite sounding croaks and chirps.

"Hey there Blue, long time no see," I said to him. "So how are you holding up?"

He responded by puffing out his cheeks a little and gave a proud, sharp sounding croak to show me that he was okay.

"And what about you Beta?" I asked.

He was still sitting in the corner of the room running system scans, but looked up for a minute to show me that he was doing fine.

Shortly afterwards, we all decided to get some sleep. Blue curled back up in the blankets on the bottom bunk, Beta1 stayed in his corner, and me and Naomi took the top bunk. Tonight, she slept rather peacefully. She didn't squirm or seem to be having any nightmares, which is good seeing as she hasn't slept very well lately. I guess she's just really tired from an exhausting day. I, however, couldn't really sleep for a while. I was too busy thinking about what all had gone on today, what with the fighting Team Magma and rescuing Blue. I know that tomorrow, we need to catch a bus ride back to Oldale Town and find Freeman. Hopefully, if he's still in the hospital, it will be easy to find him. And maybe when we get there, he can explain why he was robbed. I somehow get the feeling he was carrying something a little more important than standard field notes.

(The next morning)

This morning, me and Naomi slept in late and were woken up by Blue. He had somehow managed to limb the latter on the side of the bed up to our bunk and began jumping and screaming to wake us up. I know he meant the best intentions, but it kind of came off as annoying.

"Blue, stop it," I said groggily. "We don't want to get up."

Blue continued letting out sharp, chipper yelps to get us up, but we continued to ignore him. Finally, he got mad and used his water gun attack to soak us. The cold water made me and Naomi jump scream and jump out of bed. We both looked at Blue angrily, who know looked happy to see us awake.

"Fine, we're up!" I shouted at him. "Are you happy?" I'm not sure if Blue understood our anger at him, as he just looked at us with content and smiled.

After we took showers, brushed our teeth, and packed up our things, we headed downstairs to the cafeteria to get some breakfast. Me and Naomi got some ham and spinach omelets with some assorted fruits, Blue was given some lettuce leaves and tomatoes, and Beta1 projected a hologram of an apple which he pretended to eat. I don't quite understand why he does that. My best guess is that he wants to be like the rest of us, so I don't really question it that much.

**"So what do we do now?"** Naomi asked.

"Well, for starters, I need to call Freeman to find out where he is. After that, we need to meet up with him and return Blue." When I said that, Blue got excited knowing that he would be reunited with his trainer.

**"But even if we do find him, won't it take days to get to him? It took us forever just to walk from Oldale Town to here."**

"No, we won't be walking this time. We can just catch the twelve o'clock train heading to Oldale Town. It should only take us a few hours to get there that way."

With us all of us knowing what the plan was, we finished eating and headed out. We still have a long road ahead of us, but I'm sure we'll make it. At least things are starting to look up for us. And the best part about all of this, is that t looks like I'm finally going to get to meet back up with Freeman.

**So that's the end of chapter five. I hope you all enjoyed it. Remember, if you're a member of you can follow this story and stay updated for when future chapters come out. Right now, I've been able to keep to my usual schedule of one chapter each Saturday, and I intend to keep that up as long as possible. Anyways, thank you all for coming, and have a good weekend.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Pokémon: Christopher and Naomi**

**I hope everyone's having a good weekend, because I'm out with chapter six now. I know a lot of readers have been asking why Team Magma attacked/robbed Freeman, so I plan to reveal that in this chapter. I'm also bringing Rose Thorn and North Gun back at the end, for those of you who enjoyed them in chapter four. In terms of my college work, I've been pretty busy. In fact, I'm kind of surprised I made this chapter on time. Anyways, I'm just complaining, so I'll leave you with the disclaimers and let you enjoy your reading.**

**The following is a non-profit, fan-based fiction. I in no way own anything that is related to Pokémon. Only the original characters and content are mine. Please support the official franchise.**

Chapter six: Teaming Up

(April 6th, Oldale Town: **Freeman**'s PoV)

I woke up again today in the hospital, feeling a lot better than yesterday. I no longer need to take pain medications, and the doctor should let me out by this afternoon. My wound still aches occasionally, but it's nothing I can't shake off.

Hiroka rented out a hotel room nearby, where she's been staying for the past few days. She's mostly been training her pokémon for her next contest, but every couple of hours, she drops by here to take a break and chat with me. I've told her that she doesn't have to wait around for me, but she insists. I honestly don't mind her staying. She can be a bit hyperactive at times, but I enjoy having her around.

After I get out of here, however, what do I do? Professor Birch entrusted me to make that delivery to the Lavaridge Research Center safely, and I failed him. And with the data from those documents in the wrong hands, there's no telling what could happen. I'm probably going to get fired for this. And to make matters worse, I managed to lose Blue, my only pokémon. I still worry if he's okay.

The doctor who was in charge of me, Dr. Simmons, walked in, looking through the papers on his clipboard as always. Today, he seemed pretty tired, as if he'd been up late working last night. As a result, the way he talked was in a somewhat dark and monotone voice.

"Okay Mr. Stan, it seems your medical reports check out and you should be good to go."

"Thank you Dr. Simmons," I said gratefully.

"Just try to be more careful next time," he said, rubbing his head from an apparent headache.

I stepped out into the hallway to see Hiroka sitting on a bench with a Skitty of hers named Kelpsy on her lap. The moment she saw me, she ran over happily to greet me. The Skitty rolled off her lap awkwardly as she stood up.

"So what'd the doctor say? Are you good to go?" she asked with great anticipation.

"Yep, I'm all checked out."

"Yay!" she shouted with joy. "So now what are you going to do?"

"I'm not really sure. I have to rescue Blue, but I have no idea where to start."

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll think of something," she said optimistically, trying to cheer me up. "I know, you could ask that friend of yours you've been telling me about. Maybe you could ask him if he knows anything."

"Who Chris?" I asked, "It's been a week since I last heard from him, so I'm not sure. Maybe he could help, but for all we know, he might..."

"Um excuse me," one of the nurses interrupted me. "You're Freeman Stan, is that right?"

"That's me. Why, what's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing's wrong. Just that you have a phone call waiting for you in the lobby."

"Who's it from?" I asked.

Me and Hiroka walked downstairs to the front lobby. It was large and open with several people waiting in chairs to be seen. And over along one side of the room was a long stretch of video phone monitors, one of which was blinking with the words "Phone call from Petalburg Pokémon Center" flashing on the screen. I sat down and picked up the phone attached to the monitor to answer.

"Hello," I answered, waiting for the video to show up.

The screen flashed, showing Chris on the other line. "Hey Freeman, how's it going?" he said in a friendly tone. Looking at him, I could immediately tell he had been in some sort of accident. Yet he still appears to be in a good mood.

"Can't say things have been going great for me," I said. "But what about you? Is everything alright?"

"Well, all things considered, I guess I'm lucky I get to have this conversation with you. But, it's not too bad. Look at you though. You haven't even been a researcher for a week and you're already the talk of the news."

"So I take it you heard what happened to me then?" I asked.

"That's how I knew to call the hospital," he said. Him saying it out loud made it seem pretty obvious.

"Oh right," I said. "So yeah, basically things are pretty bad for me."

"Don't worry. I've got some good news to cheer you up," he said in a whimsical tone.

"What is it?" I asked curiously.

"You remember when it was your Birthday, and everyone at the lab remembered to get you a present except me?"

"That was a month ago, and I told you I didn't mind. Why?"

I saw him reach down and grab something from his pocket. He pulled out a condensed pokéball and expanded it to full size. He set it down on the table in front of him and looked up to me. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" he exclaimed opening up the pokéball. Out of it came a familiar Mudkip that turned bright the moment it saw me from the other side of the screen.

"Blue is that you? Oh my God buddy, I'm so sorry I lost you," I said apologetically. Blue was very accepting of my apology and responded with a series of cheerful croaks. "Well I'm glad to see you're doing okay. Chris, this is incredible. How'd you find him?"

"It's a long story," he said. "I'll have to tell you about it when I get to Oldale."

"Wow. Hold on a moment," I said to him. I looked over to Hiroka standing in the distance to tell her the good news. "Hey, good news Hiroka. Chris found Blue."

"Yay!" her and her Skitty cheered jumping in union. "I told you so," she said humorously.

"So who's Hiroka?" Chris asked.

"I'm not sure. She's some coördinator I bumped into in the woods. She dragged me to the hospital after I got shot and has been hanging around ever since."

"Sounds familiar," Chris said looking off to the side.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Another long story. I'll have to tell you that one too."

"You seem to be getting a lot of stories," I said. "Maybe you should write a book."

He rubbed his chin for a moment, contemplating the thought. "Hmm... not a bad idea."

"So wait, you're coming here?" I asked.

"Yeah, the next train to Oldale Town leaves in ten minutes, so I thought I'd catch it and come bring Blue to you. You don't mind waiting a few hours do you?"

"No, not at all," I said. I turned around to see Hiroka sitting on the ground, playing with her Skitty. "Hey Hiroka, you don't mind waiting in town for a few hours do you?" I asked her.

She rolled over as her Skitty jumped on her chest, still playing. "Sure thing," she said. "Maybe I can show you some new contest moves I've been working on while we wait."

"Awesome. So we can just wait in the park then."

Hiroka looked at me with a somewhat seductive smile and blushed a little. "Oh, taking me on a date to the park are you? I didn't know you could be such a romantic kind of guy."

"No, umm... I didn't mean it like that," I said nervously as I started to sweat. "I just..."

She got up and walked over to me in a sexual manner making me even more nervous, then moved really close to me. "BAKA!" as she hit me in the head, knocking me out of my chair to the floor. She had gone from being seductive back to her normal, hyperactive self. "Got you," she said, laughing a little as she winked.

"Why Hiroka...?" I mumbled with my face still planted in the ground.

She turned and saw Chris on the monitor looking somewhat confused at the situation. The two of them stared awkwardly at each other for a moment, then introduced themselves as if nothing had happened.

"Hi there, I'm Hiroka," she said waving.

"I'm Chris. Nice to meet you," he said waving back at each other.

I stood back up, rubbing my head where Hiroka had hit me a minute ago. "Hey Chris, didn't you say your train will leave soon?"

He suddenly became panicked, realizing he was going to miss his bus. "Oh crap, that's right. Sorry to cut things short, but I'll see you guys in a couple of hours. I'll meet you guys at the town's Pokémon Center. Come on Naomi, we have to go. You two have fun on your date." The screen then went blank as he hung up.

"...So who's Naomi?" I asked.

Hiroka smiled slyly at me as she inched closer again. "So, are you ready to go on our date?" she asked in a suggestive tone. As she got closer, she looked like she was about to hit me again.

I sighed knowing what she was about to pull again and stopped her hand from hitting me. Then her Skitty jumped on me from behind, causing me to still fall. She laughed and stuck her tongue out at me in a cute manner as she began to walk away.

"Come on, let's go."

I got back up off the ground and followed her out of the hospital door. "This isn't going to be a regular thing with you is it?"

(**Chris**'s PoV)

I panicked a little the moment Freeman reminded me of my train schedule, and ended the conversation as quickly as I could. I realize that might have been a little rude of me to do that. I'll have to apologize to them when I see them. I'm also a little disappointed that I couldn't introduce them to Naomi. She gets really nervous around other people, so I thought it would be a good way for her to meet them. But I'm at least glad to see Freeman's doing okay. At least he's found himself someone funny to travel with. Maybe she can lighten him up a little.

When I hanged up, I returned Blue to his pokéball and ran out of the Pokémon Center with Naomi as fast as possible. By the time we ran a few blocks to the nearest station, we could see the train had already pulled up and was letting people on. I quickly made it to the service station to purchase two tickets for Oldale Town, but saw that the train was about to pull off. Because Naomi's so short, she can't run really fast, so I picked her up and set her on my shoulder as I sprinted to make it to one of the passenger cars in time. The train almost seemed like it was about to leave, but I was fortunately able to get on one of the passenger cars before the doors closed.

Once inside, the car was tightly packed with people on all sides. I could feel Naomi shaking a little on my shoulder as she looked around somewhat fearfully.

**"You're shaking Naomi; relax,"** I said to her telepathically.

**"I'm sorry,"** she said quietly. **"There's just so many people."**

"It's okay. I'll make sure they don't do anything to you."

I moved to one of the corner window seats of the car where there were fewer people. And although Naomi stopped shaking, I could still sense that she was nervous. I don't quite understand, but at times, it's almost like I can feel her emotions. I've read that this sometimes happens to trainers who develop strong trust bonds with a psychic pokémon, so Naomi must really trust me a lot. Since I first met her, she's been very timid and somewhat distrustful of other people we meet. So I'm glad that I've become someone who she can trust.

For the first hour of the train ride, we stared out the window, admiring the beautiful wooded landscape we passed. Eventually, her long, green hair began to hang in my face. I moved it back a couple of times, but it would keep drifting back again. By about the third time, I turned my head and realized that she was falling asleep, so I took her off of my shoulder to hold her in my good arm. She instinctively curled up in my arm and fell into a peaceful sleep for the rest of the trip. Despite the trains occasional bumping and rocking, I did my best to keep her still while she slept.

When we finally arrived at the station in Oldale, I woke Naomi up. Her eyes slowly opened, squinting a little from the sunlight shining on her face.

**"Are we here?"** she asked tiredly.

"Yeah, we made it. You slept most of the way."

**"Can I still ride on your shoulder?"**

"Sure," I said setting her back on my shoulder.

She pulled her hair back behind her so it wouldn't get in my face again held one arm around my head for support. We waited a couple of minutes for everyone else to exit the train so we wouldn't have to walk through as heavy of a crowd. When we got off, I felt a comfortable cool breeze blow through, making the warm springtime air feel refreshing. Without wasting any time, we headed straight for the Pokémon Center to meet up with Freeman and his friend Hiroka.

Upon arriving, we saw that the Center was quiet and almost empty, so we waited in the lobby for a short while. After about a half hour, I saw Freeman enter with that Hiroka girl. He was walking with a casual manner, while she was skipping and humming to herself. They quickly spotted us and walked over to greet us.

"Hey Freeman, good to see you," I said.

"Hey Chris, good to see you too," he responded. "And you already met Hiroka."

"Hi," she said in an upbeat tone.

"It's nice to meet you in person," I said.

"Same here," she responded.

"I just realized you have white hair. How'd you get it like that?" I asked. I've occasionally wanted dye my hair white, but could never find a product or stylist who could get it truly white like hers.

"I didn't make it white. It was born this way," she said.

"Lucky," I said, a bit jealous of her.

"By the way Freeman," I said pulling out Blue's pokéball "catch." I tossed it at him.

"Thanks," he said inspecting the pokéball to see his Mudkip inside.

Freeman looked down at my feet and noticed Naomi peering at him timidly from behind my legs. "So who's this?" he asked me.

"Freeman, Hiroka, I'd like you to meet my friend, Naomi. It's okay Naomi. These are our friends," I said, trying to encourage her to come out from behind me. She cautiously stepped out in front of me and nervously introduced herself.

"Hello," Freeman and Hiroka said in union.

She spoke using her telepathy so all three of us could hear her. **"Hello, it's very nice to meet you,"** she said, giving a little curtsy with her dress.

The two of them were a little startled when they heard her speak to them. I guess most people would be surprised to hear telepathy. Hiroka returned Naomi's curtsy with one from her.

Hiroka's eyes brightened up, and she looked like she could barely contain herself from hugging Naomi when she saw her. "She's so kawaii," she said in a high-pitched voice.

Freeman bent down on one knee to look at her closer. "Interesting," he said. "I've never gotten to hear a pokémon use telepathy before. It's nice to meet you."

For the next hour, we sat down and told each other about our adventures we've been through so far. I talked about some of my battles with Beta1, and Hiroka told us about her contests she's competed in so far. Naomi still kept her distance from them for a while, but she didn't act quite as scared. Eventually, she warmed up to them and was a little more talkative. When we tried talking to Freeman about getting attacked, he seemed to try to get us off of the subject. It wasn't because of the event itself, but he seemed more nervous about talking about what was stolen.

"Hey Freeman?" I asked him.

"Yeah Chris?" he said.

"Mind telling me what you were carrying that was so important to get mugged?"

He immediately started sweating. "Oh it was nothing. Just some field notes I'd taken," he said trying to fake a smile.

"Freeman, I was almost incinerated at point-blank over those documents. Seriously, the hell were you carrying?"

He sighed and took a minute trying to find the right words to say, then he finally started to explain. He said that Professor Birch had been assisting a team of geologists and seismologists from the research center in Lavaridge Town for several months, and that he was supposed to deliver a hard copy of the final results.

"Why didn't the Professor just e-mail his results?" I asked.

"What Professor Birch was researching was top-secret, and he didn't want to risk the e-mail getting intercepted. So that's why he sent me to deliver it in person. No one was supposed to know I'd be carrying it, so he figured it would stay safe. It looks like I failed him though."

"So what was the Professor researching?"

"Him and the Lavaridge team were studying the volcanic eruptions and earthquakes to try to track the migratory patterns of..."

"Of what?" I asked, waiting in suspense.

"Of the Groudons," he said. All of us were shocked when he told us it. "And with that data in the wrong hands, there's no telling what terrible things could come."

"I can't believe it," I said. "A Groudon hasn't been seen in almost a hundred years. And the last time one showed up, it created a worldwide drought that started the Great Depression. Why would anyone want to be looking for them?"

"I'm not quite sure," Freeman said. "The Professor thought that by tracking them, we could possibly prevent another one from surfacing in the future."

"Does the Professor know you lost the notes?" Hiroka asked.

"I haven't had a chance to tell him yet, but he's probably heard from the news reports."

"Well we need to call him and see if he knows anything that might help," I suggested.

Freeman sighed again. "Yeah, you're probably right. But he's not going to be happy."

We walked over to a video phone and dialed the lab's number. After a minute of it ringing, Professor Birch appeared on the screen and answered.

"Oh hey guys," he said in a friendly tone. "Chris, how's your pokémon journey going. You look like you've already seen some good adventures," he said noting my injuries.

"Hey Professor Birch, I'm doing fine," I responded. "I just got a couple of scratches is all."

"Not bad," Professor Birch said seeming impressed. "You've definitely toughened up a bit. Have you caught any new pokémon yet?"

"Yeah," he said as he bent over and picked up Naomi. "I'd like you to meet Naomi, a Ralts that I saved a while back."

Naomi looked at Professor Birch with her usual shyness. But when she could see how relaxed and friendly he was, she smiled and waved at him.

**"Hello,"** she tried saying to him through telepathy. We could all hear her say it, but the Professor didn't seem to.

"Hey Professor, did you hear her?" I asked.

"Hear what?" he said confused.

It then occurred to all of us that Naomi might not be able to communicate with telepathy from long-range. "Sorry Professor," I said. "Naomi can speak through telepathy and she said hello. I guess she can't speak with people from too far away."

**"I'm sorry,"** she said, looking a little sad that she couldn't speak with him directly. I relayed her apology to him.

"Don't worry about it," he said trying to cheer her up. "The fact that you can use telepathy is incredible." Naomi seemed to brighten up from the compliment and smiled again.

"And Freeman," Professor Birch said, "I'm sorry about what happened to you. I found out on the news."

"So I take it you know what happened to the data then," Freeman said. "I'm sorry Professor, I failed you, and I'm prepared to face the consequences."

"Oh no Freeman, I'm not going to fire you or anything like that. I know that it wasn't your fault. But this does pose several problems. Besides the dangers of what could come from whoever got that data, I gave you the mission in complete secrecy. I didn't put mark you having the data on any of the labs files, paper or digital. No one from outside would have known you were carrying those research documents."

"Which means there must be a spy working in the lab," I said.

Professor Birch nodded at my conclusion. "Indeed. I'm not sure who did it, but I have investigators working as hard as they can to find out who's responsible. Be careful out there you two. For now, we're keeping this leak a secret, so don't tell anyone. Understand you two?"

"Yes Professor," Freeman and I said together.

"Also, take a look at this," the Professor said as he showed us today's newspaper headline, 'Starting Trainer is the Devon Corporation's Hero.' Next to the article, it showed a picture of Brendan, the Professor's son, smiling proudly with a Grovyle and Wingull.

"Wow," I said. "Brendan's sure making a name for himself isn't he."

Professor Birch laughed with content for his son. "Yes, I'm certain that with the way things are going for him, he'll be a top rank trainer in no time."

(**Rose Thorn**'s PoV)

It's been a day since the success of my mission in acquiring the data on Groudon. After I escaped from North, I hid low for the rest of the day and headed out for Magma headquarters this morning. Upon arriving, the higher-ups were pleased with my success, and our leader Maxwell's right hand man specifically wanted me to be the one to deliver the data to him. I'm honored. I haven't had the pleasure of meeting with Mr. Maxwell in quite some time now.

I entered his office with the briefcase in hand, ready to hand it over to him. Inside, his office was dimly lit to the point where I almost couldn't make out his face. Sitting next to his desk was his guard Mightyena, who growled as I entered the room. But without any fear or hesitation, I walked up to his desk and stood in attendance.

"Report," he said in a serious tone.

"Agent Rose Thorn, here to report the mission was a success sir. But I am sorry to inform you that professor Armswick was killed trying to get the data."

"An unfortunate, but acceptable loss," he said in an apathetic tone. "But you can dispense with the formalities Ms. Rose. Please take a seat," he said, motioning to a chair in front of his desk.

I did as he asked and sat down with the briefcase in my lap.

"The documents, if you will," he requested. I opened up the briefcase, pulling out the files he wanted and set them on his desk. Even though there was very little lighting, he was still able to glance over them with zealous eyes. "Excellent work Ms. Rose. I'm most pleased with your work. So pleased in fact, that I have another assignment open. One I'm sure someone with your talents could fill I presume?"

"It would be an honor sir," I said with an air of confidence.

"Good. I've been sending some recruits to steal some expensive machine parts from the Devon Corporation, but as fate would have it, my men have been repeatedly foiled. I'm not quite sure who's responsible for this. Reports say it was just a boy. But we need those parts to complete one of our machines. Go to the Devon Corporation's headquarters in Rustboro City, infiltrate the headquarters, and find those parts. Understand?"

"Yes sir. I won't fail you."

"Good. You are dismissed."

I stood back up in attention, saluted him, and walked out.

(**North Gun**'s PoV)

Having failed my mission to retrieve the Groudon documents, I was to report back to Team Aqua headquarters to meet with the boss, Archer. S**t. This is a meeting I'm not looking forward to. The last time I failed a mission this important, I was sure he'd put a bullet in my head. I rode up to the front of the parking lot where two of his toughest bodyguards were waiting to escort me to his office. Once in his office, I saw him sitting at his desk, looking over some sea charts. He set down his coffee he had been drinking and looked up to me with a look of discontent.

"Admin North Gun, report," he said in an angry tone.

"Sorry Mr. Archer sir, but the enemy got away with the data," I reported.

He walked from behind his desk and walked over to me. He paced back and forth in front of me, glaring at me with discontent. I stood as still as possible, trying not to fall out of line. He continued to pace in front of me for about a minute, then stopped directly in front of me, looking at me eye to eye. He set his left hand on my shoulder, then balled his other hand into a fist and slugged me in the jaw with it, causing me to fly across the room.

"You idiot!" he shouted. "I hope you realize what this means for us Mr. North. Because of you, now Team Magma will be able to carry out their goal faster. And if they succeed before us, then all hope is lost."

His hit broke my nose, but that was in no way nearly as bad as pride he had bruised. I stood back up and continued to stand in attention. The boss was breathing heavily from his anger for several minutes before he finally calmed down and spoke again.

"You have been one of my best men Mr. North, but you have also made several failures in your career. I expect that the next time you report to me, it will be with some good news. And I also expect to not be met with ignorance. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir," I said, saluting him.

"Good. You are to standby for further orders. Dismissed."

As I left that office, I knew that the next time I'd meet with Rose, I couldn't let her be the one to win.

**And this looks like a good point to stop the chapter. Wow, I actually wrote a little more than I had planned. That's good. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. If I'm not too busy, I'll have another one up by next Saturday as well. And just for the record, I know that the Team Aqua and Magma leaders' names in the game are Archie and Maxie respectfully, but I slightly changed them to sound more serious. I still plan to make them call each other by their game names when they speak to each other. Although that won't happen for a long time, if ever. I know many of you prefer the action packed scenes, and I'm sorry I haven't put any out these last few chapters. So next chapter, I have plenty of battling planned. And just as a reminder, if you like this story, feel free to favorite/follow it. I really appreciate that. And if you want, you can leave a review down below. Please nothing rude or negative. Thank you.**

**Christopher: Hey? What is this?**

**Me: Oh, hey. You're in my room.**

**Christopher: Why?**

**Me: Well, I've noticed that a lot of writers leave commentary between them and their characters at the end of the chapters.**

**Naomi: So we're in a book?**

**Me: It's a good book. You guys have already got six chapters written.**

**Christopher: Don't you think it's a little late to be starting one of these commentaries then?**

**Me: Well it's better late than never.**

**Christopher: Can't argue with that. What are we doing here again.**

**Me: Oh we just talk a little and then tell the readers to subscribe and leave a review if they want.**

**Naomi: Didn't you already do that?**

**Me: ...Okay fine, we'll do a next time thing.**

**Christopher: Awesome.**

**Next time, on Pokémon: Christopher and Naomi:**

**Freeman: Hey Chris, don't you need to be earning gym badges?**

**Christopher: Hey that's right. I know, how about I try Norman in Petalburg. I've know him for years.**

**Hiroka: Then you better train hard, because I hear this guy's pretty tough.**

**Christopher: Don't worry. I'm sure me and Beta have this one, right buddy?**

**Norman: Ha ha ha! Sorry kid, but you're going to have to try harder than that if you want to beat me.**

**Naomi: You can do it Christopher.**

**Me: Chapter seven: Chris vs. Norman: Round One.**


	7. Chapter 7

_**Pokémon: Christopher and Naomi**_

**Hello, people of the Internet and beyond. I'm back with chapter seven of Pokémon: Christopher and Naomi. I hope you've all been having a good weekend. I've been busy with school work lately, but have managed to squeeze in time for another chapter. Just as a heads up, I may take a break from writing this either this next week, or the week after. So if a week passes by and I haven't updated, you'll know why. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter as much if not more than the previous chapters.**

**Me: You guys ready to do this?**

**Everyone else: Yeah!**

**Hiroka: Can I have a PoV please? I haven't gotten one yet.**

**Me: Sure. I wrote you one of your own so maybe more people will get to know your character.**

**Hiroka: Yay!**

**Naomi: How long did it take you to write this chapter?**

**Me: Not as long as some of the others. But I still managed to put plenty of effort into it.**

**Chris: So are we going to start or what?**

**Me: Sure. But first we have to do the disclaimers. Any volunteers?**

**Freeman: Me! The following is a non-profit, fan-based fiction. Christopher Kamori in no way owns anything that is related to Pokémon. Only the original characters and content are his. Please support the official franchise.**

**Me: Awesome. Let's go.**

**Hiroka: Aw, I wanted to do it.**

**Me: Chapter seven!**

Chapter seven: Chris vs. Norman: Round One

(**Chris**'s PoV)

That evening, after we had called the Professor, Hiroka invited us all to stay the night in the hotel room she had rented out. At first, me and Freeman were skeptical of how we could all fit into one suite, but she insured us that she had plenty of room. She didn't tell us though just how far we would have to walk to get there from the Pokémon Center. After a while, Naomi got tired from walking and asked me to carry her on my shoulder. We continued walking throughout the streets for a while until she finally stopped.

"Are we almost there Hiroka?" Freeman asked.

"Um... guys?" she said with a tone of uncertainty.

"What is it Hiroka?" I asked. I then realized what she was about to say. "Wait, don't tell me we're..."

She nodded. "Yeah, we're lost," she said.

Me, Freeman, and Naomi all looked at each other and sighed. The lesson learned today, don't trust Hiroka with directions. She was at least able to remember the address of the hotel she was staying at, so we were able to ask a few people in town for directions until we finally arrived. To our surprise, the room she rented out wasn't that bad. The hotel was nice enough, and the room itself was fairly good-sized. There were two bedrooms plus a couch, fitting in all our sleeping arrangements, and a small kitchen off to the side with some food she had already bought sitting out.

"Wow, not bad. How'd you afford this Hiroka?" I asked, impressed with the room.

"I didn't," she said smiling. "My dad knows the guy who works here, so he got us it for free."

"That's awesome," I replied.

"We appreciate you doing this for us Hiroka," Freeman said respectfully. "Thank you." Me and Naomi both thanked her as well to not seem rude.

"No problem," she said, happy with our appreciation. She then pulled out three pokéballs and pressed the buttons on them, opening them all up. The first pokéball sent out a Pikachu, who's V-shaped tail suggested it was a female. The second one released her Skitty, which I remember seeing earlier today. And her last pokéball sent out an Emolga, which I was a little surprised to see, as they're mostly found in Unova.

"Chris, I'd like you to introduce you to Liechi, Kelpsy, and Persim," Hiroka said, introducing us to her pokémon in the order that they came out. All three of her pokémon let out cute, friendly greetings simultaneously.

Naomi was at first intimidated by all of her pokémon, so I thought it would be best to introduce Beta1 first. When I sent him out, he looked at Hiroka and her three pokémon very analytically, as if he was scanning them, then changed his tone to a cheery one and greeted them. Once Beta1 finished saying hi, Freeman sent out Blue to say hello as well. Blue greeted everyone with his typical friendly, yet polite, croak. After Naomi saw Beta1 and Blue introduce themselves, she became a little less nervous and introduced herself to Hiroka's pokémon.

That night, I decided to cook all of us some pasta that Hiroka had under one of the counters. I've always enjoyed cooking, so it was sort of my way of thanking Hiroka for giving us a comfortable place to stay for the night. For Naomi, this was her first time trying pasta, as has most other foods she's tried since she's joined me. But after the first bite, she had a look of satisfaction on her face, and proceeded to continue eating. Freeman and Hiroka also seemed to enjoy my cooking a lot.

"So what do you plan on doing now Chris?" Freeman asked, as he was about to take another bite.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

He took a second to chew his food and swallow it before speaking again. "I mean like for your pokémon journey? Don't you need to collect eight badges or more to enter the Pokémon League?"

"Oh yeah, that's right," I said. "I was probably going to try battling Norman when we get back in Petalburg City. I've known him since I was a kid, so it should be fun battling him. Although he is one of the tougher gym leaders out there, so he'll probably be a challenge."

"Don't worry," Hiroka said with her mouth full. "Gym leaders usually go easier on trainers who are just starting. But you should probably still do some training before you fight him."

"You're probably right. So I'll probably spend this next week training."

"That seems like a good idea. I'll help you train. Maybe some of my contest moves will help you out."

"I'll help too," Freeman said.

"Don't you need to start back your field research Freeman?" I asked.

"Pokémon training is something good to research. So it'll be good for both of us. Also, I want me and Blue to get a little stronger so we'll be better off the next time we're attacked."

"Good idea," I said. "The more help I can get, the better."

That night, Freeman and I got into an almost humorous fight as both of us offered to let the other one sleep in the extra bedroom. Neither of us wanted to be the one to make the other sleep on the couch, so we decided to settle the issue with a coin toss. Heads meant that I would take the couch and tails meant Freeman would. When the coin was flipped, it landed on heads, meaning I won... I guess. Little does Freeman know, however, that I had asked Naomi telepathically to land the coin on heads. Freeman's been sleeping in the hospital for days, and I know how uncomfortable those beds can be, as I've had the misfortune of sleeping on them myself when I was a kid. So I figured he could use a more comfortable rest for a change. To my surprise, the couch wasn't that bad either. Then again, I've never been too picky with bed choices.

When we all went to bed, Freeman and Hiroka took their pokémon with them into their rooms, while mine did their normal thing. Beta1 found a well-chosen corner to situate himself in and switch to sleep mode, and Naomi climbed up onto my chest and curled up. The room was somewhat chilly, so I pulled the blanket up to cover her a little more. For the first hour, I laid still, lost in thought with trying to come up with strategies for my upcoming gym battle. But as my mind started to wander, I began to fall more into sleep. That was, until I felt Naomi tense up and start trembling. I looked down to see that she had pulled the blanket over her entire body, and I could hear her let out small, faint shrieks. It looks like she was having another one of her nightmares again. She hasn't had any the last few nights, so I thought she was starting to get over them, but it seems I was wrong. This one must be pretty bad, because she's starting to cry a little louder. I could feel tears seep through my shirt. I sat up and tried to comfort her as best I could without waking her, but her nightmare continued to haunt her.

This continued for several minutes, until I heard a door open. I looked over to see it was Hiroka, rubbing her eyes from tiredness. I guess Naomi must have woken her.

"Shh," I told her quietly. "Please don't wake her."

She nodded, understanding. "What's wrong?" she whispered.

"She's having one of her nightmares. I'm just trying to calm her down," I explained.

I moved my hand up and started gently rubbing her hair and the sides of her horns. She always loves it when I do that, so I usually do that to calm her down in her sleep. As I did that, her crying started to tone down, and after several more minutes of doing that, her body started to relax and her tears stopped. She curled back up slightly nuzzled her head against my hand much like a cat would. As she now slept quietly again, I could hear soft, peaceful hums inside my head coming from her, which gave me the satisfactory feeling of knowing that her nightmare had subsided.

Hiroka, who had been watching me the entire time, looked amazed at how well I treated Naomi. She didn't say a word, but I saw her smile and quietly go back to her room. Shortly afterwards, I fell asleep as well.

(The next morning: **Hiroka**'s PoV)

This morning, I woke up with all three of my pokémon sleeping around me. Kelpsy had curled up around my feet, so when I got up, she mewed at me with a winey tone, annoyed that I ruined her sleeping spot. Liechi had slept next to my head, and squeaked at me in a way that by now I've identified as her way of saying good morning. She jumped up onto my shoulder and rubbed her head against mine, seeking praise and affection from me. She's always been the most attention wanting of my team. And Persim had been sleeping upside down, hanging from one of the ceiling fan blades. I swear he sometimes thinks he's a Zubat.

I remember last night, seeing Chris take care of his Ralts, Naomi. The amount of care and concern he showed her is something I haven't seen in a long time. Most trainers and coordinators I've met have treated their pokémon indifferently, or even rudely at times. But Chris clearly seems to be different, and I'm sure that'll take him far in his journey.

After I got dressed and cleaned up, I caught a whiff of something that smelled good. My curiosity got the better of me, and I followed it out of my room to see what it was. When I opened my door, Persim swooped over my head and glided out of the room. Freeman, who had been sitting at the table next to the kitchen, was drinking a cup of coffee when Persim decided to land on his head, startling him and causing him to spill a few drops on the table. He took Persim off of his head and turned around to see me standing in the doorway, laughing a little at him.

"Hey, good morning," I said in a loud, sunny voice.

"Good morning Hiroka," Freeman said, still looking a little mad about my Emolga jumping on him.

"Morning Hiroka," I heard Chris say from the kitchen. I could see him cooking up several omelets on the stove. That must be what smelled so good, as the scent of eggs mixed with ham, spinach and other ingredients swirled in the air.

"How did you get the stuff to make omelets?" I asked, knowing I hadn't bought any ingredients.

"I just gave Beta a few bucks and sent him down to the supermarket."

"Beta?" I asked. "Oh right, your Porygon." I saw his Porygon talking with Freeman's Mudkip, and thanked the computer pokémon. He looked to me and chimed whimsically, which I could only assume meant "You're welcome," in robot.

**"Please, not so loud,"** I heard echo faintly in my head. I looked over to seen Naomi still laying on the couch. I could see one glowing, purple eye peer at me from behind her hair that closed as she went back to sleep.

"Don't mind her," Chris said. "She's not much of a morning person."

"Is anyone?" I asked jokingly.

Naomi stayed asleep until Chris fixed her omelet, which she seemed to enjoy a lot. For the rest of the morning, we got our stuff together and took turns taking showers, with Freeman and Chris taking showers separate first, and then me and Naomi taking a bath together last. She wasn't very use to me yet, and behave very shyly towards me, especially once I ran us a bath. When she took her dress off, revealing her solid white figure, I saw that her body was very smooth and elegant, with cute, thin features. Just seeing her made me think of the times when I use to take baths with my little sister when I was a kid. Her face turned bright red when she looked up and saw my more mature, naked body with large breasts standing above her and turned away with a bit of embarrassment. I couldn't help but giggle a little at how cute she was acting. By the time I got the water warmed up enough, she wasn't quite as embarrassed to look at me, but she still kept her distance. When I was helping her wash her body, I made sure to be gentle on some bruises she had gotten from her travels. When I was cleaning her hair, I tried doing that thing Chris had done last night where he rubbed her horns to help her relax, but when I touched them, she immediately backed away, not wanting me to touch them.

As we soaked in the waters for a while, I tried making some small talk with her to help her open up a little more. Eventually, as I talked about my home life when I was growing up, she started to become a little more talkative. She told me about the times she remembered with her parents and the things she did with them when she was younger. I remember Chris telling me this morning when she wasn't around how her parents had been murdered, and how I shouldn't try to bring that topic up. I could see she was starting to get a little upset talking about them, so I quickly changed the subject. By the time we were finished bathing and got out, she had grown a little more friendly towards me. I helped her dry off and get dressed, and the two of us exited the bathroom, finding Chris and Freeman sitting on the couch having been waiting for us to leave.

(**Naomi**'s PoV)

When I first met Hiroka, she was noisy, energetic, and was so fully of joy that I could see the colors of it pouring off of her. I could clearly see she was a good person, but I didn't really like her because of how uncomfortable her openness made me. But after getting to know her a little better, I've come to like her a little more, and I hope we can become good friends. Though seeing her large breasts uncovered was still embarrassing. My face blushed a little just from the thought of them.

When we were heading out of the hotel, we ran into the person who had gotten Hiroka the room for free, and we all gave him our deepest thanks. Christopher said we were going to head back to Petalburg City. At first I thought we were going to take the train again, which made me nervous thinking about being around so many strangers. But he said we were going to be walking there again. Part of me was relieved knowing that I we wouldn't be taking the train, but another part of me was confused as to why we were taking the long way. Last time, it took us almost a week to get there on foot. According to Christopher, that was going to be the point. He thought this would be a good way for us to train before his battle with one of these "gym leaders" he's been talking about. And while the road may seem long, I'm sure the travel will be well worth it.

(One week later; April 14th: Petalburg City)

Over the past week, the four of us traveled along the road to Petalburg City. Christopher remembered the way to get there, but he chose to take his time a little more to help train me and Beta1. Besides practicing our techniques to help make them stronger, we also fought against any wild pokémon that attacked us, as well as the many trainers that challenged us to battles. And several times, we were unfortunate enough to run into Mightyena packs, one pack of which had the familiar looking wolf pokémon with the scar on its face that had attacked me and Christopher originally. Only this time when we encountered it, it seemed different. It still had a bit of a grudge against us for the times that we beat him, but this time, he appeared to show a little more respect for Christopher. And with Freeman and Hiroka backing Christopher up, the Mightyena and his pack were no match.

Freeman and Hiroka have been helping Christopher out a lot since we've been traveling. Hiroka's been giving him training tips from her contests that she's participated in, and Freeman's been coaching him on new battle strategies. But aside from battling, we've enjoyed having their company. Freeman, when he's not training with Christopher, has been working really hard on writing and doing research for Professor Birch. He's even interviewed me, trying to get to know more about my psychic abilities and what I can tell him about life as a Ralts. And Hiroka has been entertaining, especially at night time when we're all around the campfire.

After about the fifth day of traveling, Christopher was finally able to take off his sling his left arm had been in. He was greatly relieved that he was free to use his arm again, and has done some extra working out to try to toughen it back up. After his beating at the hands of Team Magma, he's been a bit more bent on making sure he's strong enough if we run into them again.

Now we're finally just outside of Petalburg City, getting ready to head out. As Hiroka was helping me brush my hair, I could hear Christopher and Freeman inside one of the tents. It's been over a week now since Christopher's back was stapled, so now Freeman was helping him remove all the staples.

"Ouch!" Christopher said for what is now his fourteenth time.

"Relax, I'm almost done," Freeman said as he pulled another staple out.

After a few more staples were pulled up, he flinched again. "Can't these things be less painful to remove?"

"Stop complaining. I'm doing the best that I can." After Freeman removed a couple of more staples, he looked over Christopher's back to see if he had missed any. "And... we're done. You're good to go."

"Thanks man," Christopher said, sighing with relief. The two of them exited the tent to show us how it turned out.

"So how does it look?" Christopher said, showing us the scars on his back. He had nine long streaks crossing one another on his back, one for each of Ninetales's tails. They weren't really deep, but they were a dark red color and looked a bit rougher than the rest of his skin.

"I think they make you look tough," Hiroka said, complimenting him.

"Nice," Christopher said grinning.

**"Do they hurt?"** I asked feeling concerned.

"I can't say getting them was pleasant, but now that they're healed up, they're fine. They actually feel a little tougher than they were before."

I smiled knowing that Christopher was feeling better.

He put on a red T-shirt and a white, short sleeve, button-up jacket to cover it up. After that, he put up his tent, grabbed his backpack, and we headed out.

When we got into town, our first stop was the Pokémon Center. Christopher wanted to make sure that me and Beta1 were both at our fullest before our battle. When we were done, he asked us both if we were sure we wanted to battle. If it's one thing Christopher has always done, it has been making sure that we were comfortable fighting. Because of this, I've gained a lot of trust and respect for him, as has Beta1. And the two of us are always willing to fight with him.

(**Freeman**'s PoV)

This is my first time seeing the Petalburg City Gym, and I have to say, it's pretty impressive. It looks like an old fortress from the feudal era that samurai would rule from. The gym was divided into numerous square-shaped rooms, divided by paper and bamboo walls, with each room containing a battle arena on it.

When Chris walked inside, he went to a man who worked there, telling him that he wanted to challenge gym leader Norman to a battle. The worker directed us through several rooms, each with pokémon trainers training under Norman squaring off against one another in battles. I quickly noted how every trainer was using normal types to battle, hinting that it was this gym's specialty. We finally entered an open area in the center of the gym that seemed to be a garden. In the middle was a large battle arena like the ones inside, but surrounding the arena was several large oak trees and bamboo shoots. Sitting on a large boulder, was the gym leader Norman himself, meditating with several of his pokémon. He had with him a Slaking, Vigoroth, Spinda, Snorlax, Ursaring, and several other formidable looking pokémon, all of whom took notice to our entry.

"Hey Norman, long time no see," Chris said, waving to the gym leader.

When the gym leader opened his eyes, he immediately recognized Chris and jumped down from the rock he was meditating on to greet him.

"Hey Chris, it's been a while since I've seen you. So how are your folks doing?" He asked.

"I'm not sure, I haven't heard from them in a while," Chris responded.

"Ah, I see. So you finally moved out," he said.

"Yeah, I left to work for Professor Birch as an assistant," Chris said.

"That's good. You know, him and I use to be good friends back in high school. We still meet up every now to keep in touch. So what brings you here?"

"Well I sort of quit being a researcher to become a pokémon trainer, and I've come here to battle you," Chris said.

"You didn't just do this to spite your parents did you?" Norman asked.

"No. I know they never wanted me to become a trainer, but that's not why I became one. I actually got excited in the idea after saving the Professor from a pack of Poochyena," Chris explained. "But I'm still trying to keep my journey a secret from them."

Norman gave Chris a bit of a look of disappointment. "You know you can't hide from your parents forever Chris," he said. "They will eventually find out."

"I know," Chris said, looking a little down, "but I don't want them to worry about me. I want to be able to prove to them that I can handle being a trainer. That's why I need to battle you. So would you please give me the honors of having my first gym battle?"

The gym leader sighed a little, then looked up to Chris. "Fine, I'll battle you. But you have to promise that if you lose, you tell your parents that you've become a trainer; tonight."

Chris knew that what Norman was asking was fair enough and agreed. "Deal."

Hiroka and I sat on a bench on the sidelines to cheer Chris and Naomi on in their battle. The two of them walked and stood inside of one box on the far right side of the arena, while Norman took his place on the far left side. A referee stood on a pokéball image that was in the center of the battle field and held up two flags, one red and the other green.

He announced the rules of the battle in a loud, clear tone so that everyone could hear him. "This gym battle will now begin between the gym leader, Norman, against the challenger, Christopher Kamori. This will be a two-on-two battle, no substitutions and no time limits. The battle is over, either when the challenger surrenders or when both his or his opponent's pokémon are unable to battle. Let the battle begin." He then darted off of the arena before either combatant could send out a pokémon to battle.

"Naomi, are you ready?" he asked her.

She looked at him and nodded, then proceeded to walk onto the battlefield. I could tell by the way she was walking that she was a little nervous. But with Hiroka screaming and cheering on the side, she looked a bit more confident. When she took her battle stance, I could see her hair begin to move, and her eyes glow as she prepared to use her psychic abilities. She's been practicing a lot with them over this past week, and has grown very adept at using them.

Norman then motioned over to one of his pokémon, Spinda, a rabbit-like pokémon with red patches covering his body, and eyes that looked like spirals. He and called it forward to battle, to which it responded by clumsily stumbling its way onto the arena like a drunkard, and taking an awkward stance to battle in. Looking it him, he stood at least three times Naomi's height and was built very round and bulky.

"Your move Chris," Norman said.

"Alright. Naomi, use confusion," Chris said.

Naomi's eyes glowed brightly as she held out her hands and focused on Spinda, like she was grabbing him. A faint, purple aura surrounded Spinda, as she tried picking him up and throwing him into the ground. But it didn't work; Spinda was resisting the attack. It laughed goofily at her, taunting her as she struggled to move him. Then he flexed a little, and broke the psychic field trying to grip him. When it broke, Naomi was pushed back a little from the force of it. Annoyed by the Spinda, she tried using confusion again, putting more effort into it, but Spinda shrugged it off again, making her a little frightened.

"Naomi, what's wrong?" Chris asked her.

I saw her look at him and shrug her shoulders, not sure herself what was going on. I could only guess at what she was telling him telepathically.

"You see," Norman explained, "my Spinda has developed a high resistance to psychic attacks. You're going to have to try a lot harder if you want to hurt us. Spinda, hypnosis," he said.

His Spinda's eyes began glowing as he stared into Naomi's. Chris tried telling her to look away, but it was already too late. She was caught in the mesmerizing gaze of Spinda's swirling eyes. Chris tried telling her to snap out of it, but it seemed as though she had become unresponsive to Chris.

"Now, teeter dance," Norman said.

His Spinda began awkwardly dancing around the battle field as he seemed to be chanting something song-like. Naomi, still under the effects of hypnosis danced along with the Spinda. All of us stared in confusion, not quite sure what we were seeing. He danced around the arena with her for several minutes, tiring her out greatly. We could all see her panting and sweating from exhaustion. Chris had been begging Naomi to snap out of it, but she still wasn't responding.

"Have you tried speaking with her telepathically Chris?" I shouted to him.

"I tried that already," he said. "All she said was razz berries."

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"It means she's confused and can't hear me."

He continued to yell out to her, trying to get her to snap out of the hypnosis spell, still to no avail. Then, when she looked like she could barely stand anymore, Norman told his Spinda to finish her off with a dizzy punch. Spinda did a little twirl with his body, as though it were still part of the teeter dance, then threw his fist at Naomi to knock her out. But at the last second, Naomi regained control of herself and was able to see the punch coming. From the look on her tired face, I could see fear in her eyes. And when she closed them in terror, her body was briefly engulfed in a white light, then vanished, teleporting to the side of the battlefield where she had started. Chris has tried to help Naomi master her teleport, but it seems it only works when she's under extreme stress or takes several minutes to focus it. Either way, she was out of harms way for now.

"Are you okay Naomi?" Chris asked concerned.

She nodded to him, trying to catch her breath. Poor girl looked like she could pass out at any minute.

"Impressive," Norman said to Chris. "It seems your Ralts was able to break my Spinda's spell. But no more holding back now," he said as his Spinda straitened up and became more serious.

Chris and Naomi smiled, knowing to use their full power as well. "Alright then. Naomi, double team, then use calm mind." The two of them had developed the calm mind technique to raise Naomi's psychic abilities further by charging up psychic energy from her body, giving her a temporary boost in power.

Naomi's eyes flashed, then the battlefield became covered with dozens of illusions. Ironically, it was now Spinda who looked confused. Naomi and her copies now all began to glow, as she focused her powers.

"Spinda, attack every copy with dizzy punch." Norman said. "Don't stop until you find the real one."

Spinda began spiraling around, bashing Naomi after Naomi, each one only being a fake. As the number of copies began to dwindle, Chris began to look a little nervous, but told Naomi to keep raising her power. After there were only a few illusions left, they all faded away, leaving the real Naomi exposed.

I questioned why they would have taken away her only cover left. But when the Spinda jumped in to attack, Chris ordered her to use confusion. Unlike her first attempts, this one worked, grabbing the Spinda in midair and forcing him to remain suspended. Me and Hiroka watched in amazement as Naomi's body began glowing with a magnificent purple glow around her that matched her eyes. Her hair and the bottom of her dress began to dance and flow as her body levitated in the air. This was her at her full power we were seeing. Amazing is the only word I could think to describe it. She held out her hand, putting a strain on Spinda, then moved it like she was throwing him, and he was sent flying into a tree. When he got up, he had a small bump on his head where he had hit the tree, but still seemed more than battle ready.

"Not bad," Norman said, rather impressed by Naomi's power. "Spinda, faint attack."

Spinda's body seemed to fade away, turning invisible.

"Be careful Naomi," Chris said, warning her. "When he turns up, hit him with another confusion."

Just as Spinda appeared in front of her, ready to strike, she sent out a huge surge of energy, throwing him back several feet. But still he got up again to continue fighting.

"Your attacks may be too strong for us to resist," Norman said, "but they're still not enough."

Naomi's eyes glowed as she picked Spinda up again. He struggled to break free, but thanks to Naomi's calm mind technique, her abilities have risen to four fold her normal levels. Then, I saw a keen look in both Norman and Spinda's eyes.

"PSYCH UP!" Norman shouted.

Spinda's body began to glow white with strange lights coming from him. He then began chanting something else, this one sounding different from the one he sang during the teeter dance. And as he began chanting, Naomi began to struggle to keep hold of him. Then, when he was finished and stopped glowing, he broke out of Naomi's confusion attack, just like he did early in the battle. Both Chris and Naomi were baffled by what just happened, and proceeded to try executing another confusion, but it was no good. Not only was Spinda resisting their attacks, but he was ignoring them as he walked towards Naomi.

"I don't get it. What's wrong with her?" Hiroka asked confused.

"It's not her Hiroka, it's Spinda. Psych up is a technique that lets the user mimic any power-ups its opponents have used. Naomi used her calm mind to raise her special attack and special defense stats to their maximum levels. But since Spinda was able to copy that power boost, it's made things just like the start of the match. What's worse now is that Naomi's too tired to battle and Spinda looks like he's just warming up.

"What can they do?" Hiroka asked, worried for Naomi.

"I don't know," I responded.

Naomi was now even more exhausted than before. Her psychic abilities were drained, and the few attacks she could muster left were still having no effect on Spinda. She fell to her knees, as she tried focusing her teleport to get away. It was no use, however, as she had neither the time or energy to teleport. She sat up as the three-foot tall panda pokémon towered over her with a creepy smile on its face.

"Spinda, dizzy punch," Norman said.

Spinda spun around a few times as it raised its fist, ready to strike, it moved it right up close to her face, then barely pressed its palm to her head. Rather than striking her hard, it only seemed to push her down gently. From the looks of it, I think Naomi had already passed out, and Spinda was just doing her the kindness of not adding unnecessary injuries to her.

The referee ran over to check on Naomi and declared her unable to battle, giving round one to Norman's Spinda.

Chris ran over to Naomi to help her up.

"Naomi, are you alright?" he asked her as he took her into his arms.

She faintly opened her eyes up looking at him. I couldn't hear what she was telling him, but by the smile on both of their faces, it looked like she was okay.

"You did a good job Naomi. I'm very proud of you," Chris said as he rubbed her head with a look of satisfaction on his face.

Naomi gave him one more smile before passing out again from exhaustion. Chris walked over to let Hiroka hold her while he continued to battle.

"Is she alright Chris?" I asked.

"Yeah, she'll be okay. She just used too much energy is all."

"Are you still going to fight?" Hiroka asked him, feeling worried that Beta1 might end up the same way.

"I'm not giving up now. If I lose, I refuse to let it be because I quit, especially after how hard Naomi worked out there."

He walked back over to his side of the battlefield and engaged Beta1's pokéball.

"This is your last chance to surrender," Norman said.

"No way. I'm going through with this to the end," Chris stated confidently. "And I'm not going to lose. Beta1, let's go!"

When Beta1 came out, he let out an aggressive screech as he prepared to fight.

"Good," Norman said. "Then let round two begin."

(To be continued)

**Chris: Lame.**

**Me: What?**

**Chris: You ended it on another cliffhanger. Now people have to wait another week to find out what happens next.**

**Me: Don't they normally have to do that when waiting for these chapters?**

**Chris: Good point. Still, at least the fight was good. How are you doing Naomi?**

**Freeman: Still passed out.**

**Chris: Right. Well, will she wake up soon?**

**Me: Yeah. Just give her some time to rest. Remember kids, if your pokémon is injured, you should always take it to a Pokémon Center as soon as possible, or treat it with some potions yourself.**

**Hiroka: To get the best care, use Chancey's Aid medical supplies. Call the toll-free number to order yours now.**

**Chris: Did you guys just do a commercial? For a fictional product?**

**Me: Well I thought it was a good advertisement.**

**Naomi: How'd I do?**

**Chris: Wait, you were faking being passed out?**

**Naomi: I thought I was good.**

**Chris: Well how do you feel?**

**Naomi: I still want razz berries.**

**Chris: I thought that was your confusion talking.**

**Naomi: I still want them.**

**Me: We'll get you your berries. Can we just do the end thing?**

**Hiroka: I'll do it since Freeman stole the title introduction. Remember viewers, if you like this story, you can help us out by favoriting and following this story. Also, we may be creating a Twitter or Facebook page for this story. So if we get that up, we'll let you know, and you can like or follow us there as well. And if you have any suggestions or comments for us, please feel free to write them down in the box below. Just please don't write anything rude or negative. Thank you, and have a good weekend everyone.**


	8. Chapter 8

_**Pokémon: Christopher and Naomi**_

**And I'm back with another chapter written. This is the continuation of the previous chapter, so if you haven't read that one, read it now. (Then again, why would you be reading chapter eight if you haven't read the other chapters in general) Sorry. Anyways, let's jump into it. I'll start my character dialogue, leave this disclaimers and let you get on with reading it.**

**Me: Ready for another chapter Naomi?**

**Naomi: I thought I was knocked out.**

**Me: Oh right.**

**Chris: Why'd you make that Spinda so hard.**

**Me: Get over it. You're still not done yet.**

**Hiroka: Didn't you say you'd be taking a break from writing this?**

**Me: Yes, but then I wrote one anyways. You're welcome.**

**Naomi: I was grateful.**

**Me: Thank you Naomi.**

**Freeman: So are we going to do this or what?**

**Me: Disclaimers. And this weeks disclaimist is... Naomi.**

**Chris: Disclaimist isn't a word.**

**Hiroka: And why not me?**

**Me: Because she was grateful.**

**Freeman & Hiroka: So were we.**

**Me: Too late. Take it away Naomi.**

**Naomi: The following is a non-profit, fan-based fiction. Christopher Kamori in no way owns anything that is related to Pokémon. Only the original characters and content are his. Please support the official franchise.**

**Chris: Seriously! Disclaimist?**

Chapter eight: Chris vs. Norman: Round Two

(**Hiroka**'s PoV)

I feel bad for Naomi. She fought her hardest out there, but it still wasn't enough. Even after all the hard work her and Chris had put into their training, she was unable to match the gym leader, Norman's pokémon. After Chris had checked on her to see if she was okay, he carried her over to me. I could see that she was still passed out in his arms as he handed her to me. When I felt her, her body was hot and covered with sweat from where the Spinda had hypnotized her. She was breathing heavily, and her body flinched and trembled occasionally from pain.

As Chris was walking back to the battlefield, I looked towards Freeman who was writing down some notes in his journal. He had been occasionally been documenting the things that he saw in the battle, but would try to write them down quickly to get back to watching the fight.

"Poor girl," Freeman said sympathetically as he briefly looked at Naomi.

"I know, I feel so bad for her," I responded. "Especially after how hard she fought."

"Now I'm curious what Chris will try next," Freeman said looking at Chris, who had just sent out Beta1 to battle.

"COME ON CHRIS, YOU CAN DO THIS!" I shouted, trying to cheer Chris on.

He stood next to his Porygon confidently, staring over to Norman and his Spinda. The Spinda was mocking Chris as he danced back and forth laughing creepily. But Beta1 looked at the opponent keenly, like he was analyzing its stats and looking for any weak points.

"Beta1, go into attack mode type one (evade and quick-strike) and use sharpen," Chris said. His pokémon responded and reshaped its head to have two short blades on each side of its face.

The two pokémon now began to circle each other around the arena, both waiting for his trainer to give them a command.

"Spinda, use your hypnosis," Norman ordered his pokémon.

Just like when he used this on Naomi, his eyes began glowing as he gazed into Beta1's. The Spinda thought his hypnosis attack was working, as Beta1 now looked unresponsive, and began to approach Beta1, getting ready for a dizzy punch his trainer had told him to use. He skipped and twirled towards Beta1 while holding out a fist as he was charging up the attack. But as Spinda got close, Chris gave Beta1 another command.

"Use your agility to dodge, then tackle," Chris said.

The Spinda was caught off guard to see that Beta1 wasn't actually hypnotized. As he tried attacking with his dizzy punch, Beta1's body darted out-of-the-way, as if he were light as a feather, causing the Spinda's arm to crash into the ground and kick up dust. Beta1 then bolted back to Spinda and flew by him with amazing speed, using one of his small blades to cut at its side. The cut wasn't deep, but it was enough to draw blood, which seemed to anger the Spinda greatly. His haunting smile he had worn the entire battle turned to a sour frown, which almost made him look creepier than before.

Norman looked a little confused about what happened. "What's going on?" he asked. "Why were you able to resist my hypnosis?"

"Isn't it obvious," Chris responded, glad that his strategy had worked. "Because Beta here's a machine, mind tricks don't work on him. None of your attacks will work like they did on Naomi."

"We'll see," Norman said as he smiled with determination. "It's true you can resist my Spinda's hypnosis, but let's see how you contend to his strength. Spinda, psybeam!"

"Dodge it Beta," Chris said.

Spinda charged up a huge, rainbow-colored ball of energy in its hands and fired it out Beta1. Beta1 was quick to evade the attack, but the explosion from where the attack hit the ground still managed to scorch him, forcing him back a little.

"How can Spinda create such a powerful attack?" I asked Freeman. "I didn't think Norman's would be this strong."

"It's not," Freeman said as he continued documenting the battle. "Norman has trained his pokémon to be really powerful, but it's the psych up he used from earlier that's making him so strong."

"Oh yeah, that's right," I said, remembering how he copied Naomi's calm mind effects.

"Naomi used her calm mind to raise her special attack and defense stats to their maximum, meaning now Spinda's at his max as well," Freeman said.

"Come on Beta, outrun him with agility," Chris said.

Beta1 brushed off the blast from Spinda's psybeam and lightened his bulky frame, greatly increasing his speed. Spinda began firing several more beams from his hands, but Beta1 was able to dodge all of them. As the Spinda became frustrated, he fired more and more psybeams, blasting small craters throughout the battlefield, and filling the arena with a heavy cloud of dust. Eventually, neither me nor Freeman could see the fight. I could only occasionally catch a glimpse of Spinda looking around confused, as he was trying to spot his opponent.

"Spinda, watch out," Norman warned his pokémon. "If you see him, use dizzy punch."

Occasionally, I would see a shadow that would look like Beta1 appear, as would the Spinda. It would charge at the shadow and attack, but the figure would disappear. This continued multiple times where the Spinda would try to attack, but lose sight of his target.

"It's no use," Chris said to Norman. "I've taught Beta to use his conversion technology to match his environment perfectly."

"Camouflage, not bad Chris," Norman said, somewhat impressed with Chris's tactic.

"Beta1, ram him with tackle," Chris said.

From the dust cloud, we heard what almost sounded like a bullet firing as Beta1 shot towards the unaware Spinda, crashing directly into his face and throwing him out of the arena. When he got up, his face was severely bruised from where he had been hit. There was a little blood hanging from his lip that he wiped off. As the dust finally settled, we could see Beta1 standing in the middle of the arena with his body turned a variety of browns. A pretty dull color pallet if you ask me, but Freeman seemed to be impressed. Now that there was no longer any dust, Beta1's body reverted back to its original pink and blue color scheme.

"Are you alright Spinda?" Norman asked his pokémon.

The Spinda responded by turning to his trainer and giving a comedic salute, showing that he was still fit for battle.

"Okay then, attack. Give him everything you've got," Norman said.

"Tackle him Beta; use your hammer mode," Chris countered.

Beta1 put away his blades, and in exchange reshaped his head and feet to be more hammer-like.

Spinda charged towards Beta1 and began throwing kicks and punches left and right. But due to Beta1's incredible speed, most of them were evaded, with the exception of a few weaker blows. Beta1 was countering Spinda's assault by striking and beating him at every chance he got. And while most of Spinda's bulk absorbed most of the blows, it was clear who had the advantage in this fight. Bruises became more and more clear on Spinda's body, but it still continued to fight. He fought like one of those martial artists from the movies, which would be very impressive if he wasn't constantly missing. Beta1 is constantly ducking and side stepping everything the Spinda is dishing out, only to counter with quick and powerful jabs and headbutts.

"Hang in there Spinda," Norman said trying to encourage his Spinda.

"Finish him," Chris said to Beta1.

As Spinda came down on Beta1 with one of his punches, Beta1 ducked under the attack and smashed his hammerhead into Spinda's gut, causing him to flinch. He then roundhouse kicked Spinda's face where he had been rammed earlier, throwing him several feet, and making him land on his back with a loud thud. The referee ran over to see if the Spinda was still able to fight, making us wait in suspense. We saw Spinda's body tremble as he tried standing back up. Eventually, he mustered the strength to stand again, and he assumed a position ready for battle.

"Beta1, thunder wave," Chris said without hesitation.

Beta1 fired a quick surge of electricity at Spinda, which though it didn't seem to hurt him, caused his body to tense up with paralysis and fall over. This time, he didn't get back up, and the referee declared him unable to battle.

Chris ran over to Beta1, congratulating for his victory.

"Great job Beta1, you did it," Chris said happily, hugging his Porygon. Beta1 seemed happy to receive praise from Chris, and responded with an equally happy chime.

"Well done Chris, it seems I've underestimated you," Norman said. "But let's see how you do against your next opponent." He looked over to the group of pokémon he was training with earlier and motioned one of them forward. A large white monkey with a large mouth and long claws stepped out from the group. It seemed to behave very aggressively and hyper.

"What pokémon is that?" I asked Freeman.

"That's a Vigoroth," Freeman said looking a little worried. "They're both really fast, and really strong."

Chris held out his pokédex to see if he couldn't get any helpful data on it.

_"Vigoroth, unlike its slow and lazy relatives, Slakoth and Slaking, this pokémon is very active. They have a strong lust for battle, and will attack anything that enrages them with their razor-sharp claws."_

"Be careful Beta," Chris said, sounding a little worried.

Beta1 looked to Chris and assured him that he could handle it. Chris had faith in his pokémon, and smiled as he prepared to resume the battle.

(**Naomi**'s PoV)

I felt a slight throbbing sensation in my head as I began to regain consciousness. I was tired and exhausted feeling, but was at least able to sit up now. I opened my eyes to see Hiroka was holding me in her arms. She noticed I was awake and looked down to see how I was feeling.

"Oh Naomi good, you're awake. How are you feeling?" she asked.

**"Ow, my head hurts,"** I responded to her. **"What happened?"**

"You used up all of your energy and fainted," Freeman explained.

It took a moment for me to remember everything that had happened. I tried fighting Spinda with my psychic attacks, but he kept brushing them off. Then he looked into my eyes strangely and I fell asleep. By the time I awoke, my body was aching and exhausted. I tried reaching my full power to fight back, but even that didn't work on him. And as I struggled to keep a hold of him, my energy rapidly started to drain. The next thing I knew, I was out of power, to weak and tired to continue on, and I passed out.

**"So where's Christopher?"** I asked.

"Him and Beta are kicking Norman's ass out there!" Hiroka said sounding excited for the battle.

I looked up and saw Christopher standing with Beta1 on one side of the field, while Norman and some other pokémon stood on the other. I looked off to the side of the arena to see the Spinda that beat me laying unconscious on the ground with several lumps and bruises on his body. He was mumbling random words that I couldn't understand, but I could only assume meant variations of ouch. Looking back to Chris, I saw him stand relaxed, but confident. I knew he could win this.

**"You can do this Christopher."** I said to him. He turned to me when he heard my voice inside his head and smiled, glad to see that I was okay.

**"Thanks Naomi,"** he said. Then he turned back to face Norman and get ready to fight.

"Beta1, switch to sword mode and use sharpen," Christopher said.

Beta1 reshaped his head, feet, and tail to be longer and sharper, with blades on all sides of him.

"Now use your agility and attack," Chris continued.

Beta1 charged at Norman's pokémon faster than I had ever seen him go before, and swung at him with one of his bladed feet. But just as the attack was about to hit, Norman's pokémon disappeared, then reappeared behind Beta1.

"Vigoroth, slash," Norman shouted out.

Beta1 tried to get out-of-the-way, but Vigoroth slashed him with his long claws, throwing him to the other side of the battlefield.

"Wow," Freeman said impressed. "Such speed is incredible. I don't think I've ever seen a pokémon move that fast before." He then started writing down something in his notebook.

"Freeman, this isn't a good thing," Hiroka scolded him. "If he's too fast, then Chris and Beta don't stand a chance."

Beta1 struggled to stand back up, but was quickly able to recover from the blow.

All right Beta1, full speed, give him everything you've got," Chris said.

"Counter him Vigoroth," Norman said.

Beta1 rushed towards Vigoroth again, and started barraging him with rapid slashes and cuts, which Vigoroth matched with his own claws. The two of them exchanged many blows, where each of there attacks would clash. Neither one at first seemed to be giving in, but soon Beta1 started to tire out and was knocked back again. He landed on his feet and was about to charge back in, but Vigoroth flying towards him at a near invisible speed and smashed Beta1's body with a fierce blow. He was thrown once again across the battlefield, only this time he had several pieces of his body knocked loose or even completely off. Electrical sparks flashed and flickered from large gashes in his side, and I could see some wires and internal pieces exposed. His eyes no longer glowed, suggesting that he had been knocked out. I couldn't help but feel worried, seeing as how much damage he had taken.

Looking over to Christopher, I could sense that his attitude had changed from a positive one to a terrified one quickly.

(**Chris**'s PoV)

"BETA1 NO!" I shouted panicked. I couldn't stand seeing how bad his condition was, knowing that I was responsible. The damage that had been done to him by that last attack was horrible. Pieces of hardware and circuits exposed and several bolts and panels torn loose from his body.

The referee ran to check and see if he was even fit for battle and examined him closely.

"Porygon is unable to bat..." he started to say before he was cut off by Beta1's lights in his eyes turning back on and him standing up quickly.

"And it seems Porygon is back up," the referee said, correcting himself. It was rare for certified judges to make wrong judgment calls, so this must mean we were extremely lucky.

"Congratulations Chris," Norman said smiling at me. "I didn't think your pokémon could survive that attack. But what will you do now?" he asked seriously. "Will you surrender now, or risk your pokémon taking anymore damage?"

I walked over to Beta1 and looked at him, deciding what I should do. There's no way I can beat him and I don't want my pokémon to take further damage, but at the same time, I don't want my pokémon to think I don't have any faith in them. So I looked to Beta1 and asked him what he wants to do.

"So what do you think Beta?" I asked. "Should we give up and call it a day?"

He shook his head and stamped his foot down, telling me he still wanted to fight.

I knew I couldn't deny him while he was in this state. Beta1 can be very passive or compliant at times, but if he has his mind set on something, there's no stopping him. With the confidence and bravery he was showing now, I wasn't going to cower away. We may be at a disadvantage, but I'll be damned if that stops me here.

"Alright Beta, if you think you can do this, then I believe in you," I said with confidence. "But we need to switch up our strategy." I took a minute to try thinking of a plan that we could use, and Norman's Vigoroth started to get impatient.

"Hurry up Chris," Norman said. "I can only hold back Vigoroth so much."

"I've got it," I said, having had a spark of inspiration. "Can you still do conversion?" I asked Beta1.

He nodded and briefly demonstrated changing his type a little.

"Okay, switch to attack mode type two (long-range mode) and convert to ghost type."

Beta1 reshaped his body from being sword-like, to having several barrels for firing laser beam attacks and scoped lenses on his eyes to increase his accuracy. His body then flashed quickly and became seemingly hollow and transparent.

"Now fire your psybeam attack," I said.

"Dodge it," Norman ordered his pokémon.

Vigoroth barely managed to avoid getting blasted by the narrow, condensed beam of energy fired from Beta1, getting a few hairs from the side of his face shot off. Beta1's attacks then began to increase in rapidness as dozens, if not hundreds of psybeams were rapidly fired at Vigoroth. Vigoroth's incredible speed allowed him to evade most of the shots, but he was hit by some of them. He was more than strong enough to resist them, and it almost seemed like they weren't having any effect on him at all, but they were making him increasingly mad.

"Fury swipes," Norman said to Vigoroth.

With his nightmarish speed, Vigoroth was able to leap towards Beta1 while still avoiding the stream of attacks, and swung his claws at him. Only this time, Vigoroth's claws went straight through him, having no effect. The claws hit the ground underneath him, leaving deep claw marks and throwing up more dust. Caught off guard by this, the Vigoroth was stunned for a moment, giving Beta1 the opening he needed to blast him with full power. It stung Vigoroth a little, but it didn't throw him back very far and he was still standing. But now he was enraged and began howling and screeching as he thrashed the ground and his chest.

"It's no use Norman," I said. "Your Vigoroth is incredible. His speed and strength have outclassed me in every respect. But all the power in the world is useless if you can't effect me. You loose."

"Don't be so sure Chris," Norman said keeping a straight face. "You may have the advantage now, but you still have a lot to learn before you're ready to beat me. Vigoroth, use rock smash on Porygon, and don't stop."

"Fire at will," I said. But wait, why would Norman continue attacking if it's going to do nothing? That doesn't make any sense.

Vigoroth was quick to dodge any attacks Beta1 fired at him, but would then throw out punches that would go through Beta1 and hit the ground, doing nothing more than kick up dust. I was surprised that even at point-blank, Vigoroth could easily dodge my attacks with his insane speed. But still the fight continued on. Soon, I started having trouble seeing the battlefield passed all the dirt Vigoroth had kicked up. It was by this point that I thought I knew what he was planning. Eventually, the arena was thick with a cloud of dirt and sand again like earlier. The breeze from the Spring air stirred the dust up even worse, throwing the dust everywhere. I tried to shield my eyes from the dust, and I could hear that Freeman, Hiroka, and Naomi were doing the same.

"Beta1, he's trying to leave us blind," I said. "Keep an eye on your motion tracker and see if you can spot him."

Beta1 looked around cautiously as he scanned the area. It's strange how Vigoroth was there so close to us, but suddenly disappeared. I could tell that this dust was irritating Beta1's sensors as he began to shoot out a few more sparks from his exposed hull.

"He's trying to overload your converter," I warned Beta1. "Don't fall for it."

Beta1 tried doing his best to stay in his ghost form, but with the dust flowed through his transparent body and messed with his circuits, he began to glitch up and change. The panels on his body started flashing a multitude of colors and textures until they finally changed him into a pure ground type like earlier. This made him significantly more resistant to the dust, but it now made him susceptible to physical attacks again.

"Beta, look out!," I shouted.

"Now finish him," Norman said. I heard one of the trees rustle and shake as Vigoroth emerged from the canopy, where he had been hiding. He leaped through the air, over the cloud of dust, and came crashing down on Beta1 with his fist, denting his face and causing him to immediately shut down.

When the dust finally cleared up again, we could all see Vigoroth standing proudly and intimidatingly over Beta1's deactivated body, which had now returned to its original shape and color.

"Porygon is unable to battle," the referee declared. "Norman is the winner of the match."

I ran over to Beta1 to try to help him back up. When I knelt down to him, I saw his eyes spark back on faintly. He was unable to move, but managed to muster out a weak, positive sound.

"You were amazing out there Beta. I'm sorry we weren't able to win," I said, proud of him as I rubbed his forehead.

I then felt a small hand grab me jacket. I immediately knew it was Naomi and looked down to her. I wrapped one of my arms around her hugging her tightly as I did the same to Beta1 with the other arm.

"And I'm also proud of you Naomi," I told her, making her smile. "You did great, both of you."

**"I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough,"** Naomi said to me feeling a little down about herself.

"Don't say that," I said. "It's my fault for challenger a gym leader so early. Still though, you guys gave it your all. Good job."

After congratulating Naomi and Beta1, I returned Beta1 to his pokéball and awaited Norman who was approaching me with his Spinda and Vigoroth close behind him.

"You did well for your first time," he said patting me on the shoulder. "Most starting trainers never even make it past my Spinda, yet you gave my Vigoroth a run for his victory."

"It was my pokémon that did all the work sir," I said looking at Naomi and Beta1's pokéball.

"It's true that your pokémon helped you in this fight, but it was your training and your leadership that brought them this far. Not only that, but I can see that your bond with your pokémon is strong. But it is experience that you lack. You're new to this, so if you want to start earning gym badges, you'll have to do more traveling."

"Then will you help me gain the experience I need?" I asked him.

"I'm not going to train you personally, but I can send you on the right path," he said. "I'd recommend going to train on Dewford Island. I know I guy at the edge of town who could take you there. The island is full of thick forests and deep caves you can train in. The town's gym leader, Brawly, will be a better person to try to earn your first gym badge from. Once you train there and earn your first gym badge, continue traveling on your own."

"Will I ever get another chance to battle you?" I asked.

"Yes," he said boldly. "When you've acquired at least five badges, come back and see me. We'll have a rematch to test your skills as a trainer."

"Then I look forward to that day," I said.

"Good, then you better get started," he said smiling. "You've got a long journey ahead of you."

"Yes sir," I said brightly as I shook his hand.

After talking with Norman, Freeman and Hiroka approached me to congratulate me on the fight. I told them what Norman had instructed me to do, which both of them seemed on board with. Freeman knew that Dewford Island was teaming with exotic wildlife, and Hiroka said she loved the beach. So we decided to leave, on route for our next destination. But right as I got to the door, Norman stopped me.

"Remember our deal Chris," Norman said to me, reminding me of the promise I made to him before the battle. "You lost, which means you have to tell your parents about your journey."

I sighed a little knowing that he was right. "Yes sir, I'll go do that right now."

"Good," he said sternly. "And be sure to tell them I said hi," he said in a cheerier tone.

When we left the gym, I asked Freeman and Hiroka to wait for me while I would do this. I also tried getting Naomi to stay with them, but she refused to leave my side. Well this is going to be an uncomfortable reunion.

**And here's a good place to end this chapter. I hope everyone enjoyed the long fight chapter. These are usually my favorite to write.**

**Chris: We lost.**

**Me: I know, I planned that.**

**Chris: ...I have no response to that.**

**Me: At any rate, you'll get a rematch later.**

**Freeman: In how many chapters do you think that'll be?**

**Me: Can't say. Mostly because I write these chapters as I go.**

**Hiroka: You don't have a plan written out?**

**Me: I have an ending I'd like for the story. I just don't know how long it'll take me to get there.**

**Chris: So basically, a while.**

**Me: A long while yes. Can we do the end thing?**

**Hiroka: I'll do it.**

**Freeman: Me too.**

**Chris: Why can't I do it? I'm the main character.**

**Hiroka: Remember viewers, if you like this story, you can help us out by favoriting and following this story.**

**Freeman: Also, please feel free to leave your comments or ideas down in the box below. If you want, you can try writing your own character that we may pick to be in the story. Rules for that are in the author's profile, and you can find it there.**

**Hiroka: And please don't leave any rude or negative reviews in the comments below. We really appreciate it.**

**Freeman: We hope to see you again, next time on Pokémon: Christopher and Naomi.**


	9. Chapter 9

_**Pokémon: Christopher and Naomi**_

**Hey guys. Sorry about the week-long break. I was a little busy last week with college. So anyways, here's our 9th chapter out for you, so I hope you enjoy.**

**Chris: It's about time.**

**Me: Get over it. This is on my time remember?**

**Hiroka: Shut up guys, I've been waiting for this.**

**Me: Want to do the honors me?**

**Chris: Sure, it's about time.**

**Me: Too bad, Freeman.**

**Freeman: The following is a non-profit, fan-based fiction. Christopher Kamori in no way owns anything that is related to Pokémon. Only the original characters and content are his. Please support the official franchise.**

**Chris: Dang it.**

Chapter nine: Leaving Home

(**Chris**'s PoV)

As promised to the gym leader, Norman, I'm going back home today to finally tell my family about my pokémon journey. There's a couple of things that need to be noted though. Number one, is that my parents hate pokémon and virtually anything to do with them. They think all pokémon are dangerous, evil, or annoying in one way or another. They each have their own different reasons why they hate pokémon so much, but their ideals are about the same. So growing up, all of my friends would have pokémon they'd keep as pets, which at times would make me a little jealous, because for me, I loved pokémon. They've always fascinated me, even to this day. Whenever I'd get a chance in school, I'd take extra Biology or Environmental class that focused on pokémon research. This is one of the reasons why I joined Professor Birch's research lab, a job that neither of my parents approved of, but weren't too mad about me joining. I find it strange that they could hate things that make up the majority of life on Earth, but I tend not to cross them for their judgment.

Which leads me to my second point, they are very stubborn. You can rarely win an argument with them, no matter how small it is. Not that they aren't agreeable people. Just that they are only agreeable when they are "right." When I was living at home, this lead to several unnecessary fights between me and them, which I'll admit to starting some of them. I've tried making it one of my goals in life to be more open and accepting of others' ideals to avoid becoming as stubborn as my parents, though I occasionally stumble in this. I guess some of their stubbornness rubbed off on me. Never the less, it's a trait I try to avoid when possible. Though I think my parents are completely unaware of theirs and will never change. Ironically, they are stubborn in their stubbornness.

And as a third point to note about them, they can be over protective or worrisome, especially about me and my siblings. For whatever reason they have, they have the extreme notion that something bad might happen to me. As a result, I rarely got the chance to do out of school activities as a kid. They felt that school was the most important thing for me and my siblings to focus on. So while other kids would be playing sports or going on trips, I'd be working on projects for A.P. or Honors classes. Because of me having so little time to interact with others outside of school, school itself became my place for socializing. Even then, I could almost say it was a boring childhood. But I can't say I hated them for what they did. They did care a lot for me, and had my best interests at heart. Which is why I was hesitant to tell them about my decision to start a journey. In some ways, I resent or dislike some of their qualities, but they're still my parents, and I can't actually bring myself to hate them. It's sort of a bitter-sweet kind of love.

Just as a short bio for each of my parents, my father is Joey Owens, a civil defense attorney from the Slateport City. He can be short-tempered or cold on bad work days, and he developed a hate for pokémon during a camping trip as a kid when an Ursaring attacked him and his family. Since then, he had developed fears and eventual hate of all pokémon. My mom, Miranda Owens, ironically works as a prosecution attorney, which is how her and my dad met. She doesn't have as many bad days as my dad, and is usually less stubborn than him, but can still be pretty hard set. While she hasn't told me exactly why she hates pokémon, I know it had something to do with a pet Houndoom her parents kept when she was a teenager. She gets pretty hostile if that dog's ever brought up, so I don't bother her with it. Never the less, as I have stated many times before, she dislikes most if not all pokémon. After they married, they moved to Petalburg for business reasons shortly before I was born and have lived here ever since.

(April 14th: Petalburg City)

After leaving the gym, I asked Freeman and Hiroka to go on ahead and wait for me at the docks near the edge of town, where we would take a boat to Dewford Town. With Naomi exhausted and Beta1 near broken, I rushed them both to the Pokémon Center. On the way, a few trainers who had lost to me early on in my journey stopped me to challenge me to a rematch. They were disappointed when I told them they'd have to wait, but understood and respected my wishes. When I arrived at the Center, the nurse laughed upon seeing me. I realized why when I saw how I was covered in dust from the pseudo-sandstorms during the gym battle. She took my pokémon to heal them and offered me to use one of the showers in the washroom to clean up, which I was very grateful for. This Pokémon Center's become so familiar to me that I know where everything is pretty much. After freshening up and getting back Naomi and Beta1, I was sure to leave a tip in the donation box next to the lobby counter.

"So how are you feeling Naomi?" I asked her as we walked out of the Center.

**"I'm doing good,"** she said in a small but happy voice. **"My head hurts a little though. It's a little annoying."**

"I'm sorry. Confusion tends to do that, even after going away," I said. "But don't worry. The nurse just said to go easy on the psychic powers for a couple of days and get some rest, and you should be fine. Speaking of being fine," I said reaching for Beta1's pokéball.

I released him to see how he was. The nurse said they had fixed him, but you can never fully trust repairs done by those healing machines. Beta1 seemed neutral and quiet coming out of his pokéball, which isn't like him. Usually he at least gives a whimsical ring or a few beeps. Looking at him, he seemed physically fine, so I was worried what was wrong with him.

"Everything okay Beta?" I asked him concerned.

He shifted to a more unhappy look and turned to me. He tilted his head down a little and sighed through a few of his vents.

"You're sad about the gym battle aren't you?" I said, figuring that was what was bothering him. "It's okay, we did our best, which I realize is pretty cliche right now. But think of it this way: Norman destroyed us, but he did say one thing. That after we got four more badges, we would be ready to face him again in a real battle. So now we have our goal to reach for. We will become stronger, and we will one day be able to beat him."

My words seemed to cheer him up back to his normal self, which is still relatively monotone, just with a more positive tone. I don't know, he's a computer. The fact that he shows emotions at all still surprises me sometimes.

**"So are we going to visit your family?"** Naomi asked.

"Yeah, about that," I said anxiously. "I think it might be better if the two of you went on ahead with the others to wait on me."

**"Why don't you want us to come?"** she asked equally as nervous as me.

"Let's just say that my family has a strong prejudice against pokémon that I wouldn't want to put you through."

**"But I don't want you to have to face them alone. We're a team; I follow you where you go, remember?"**

Beta1 agreed with her and wanted to accompany me, despite my warnings. On one hand, I'm touched that they want to go with me. It actually means a lot to me. But on the other hand, I don't want them to become the center of a debate or argument. Ultimately, I decided to let them win this one.

"You guys win, you can come. Just don't say I didn't warn you."

I've already explained to Beta1 before about my parents, but I hadn't yet to Naomi. Mostly it was because either I couldn't find a good time to bring it up, or I wouldn't want to make her think about her parents too much. So on the way to my family's home, I gave her my brief description of them. I didn't want to intimidate her, but I felt it would be fair for her to know what she would be seeing.

We finally arrived at my front door steps. It's been a while since I've been here, but nothing looks as if it has changed. A two-story, solid brick Ranch style house with a dull brown door. I always found it ugly, but my parents refused to replace it. I guess it doesn't even really matter seeing as I'm not going to be seeing it again for a while.

(**Naomi**'s PoV)

"Well, we're here guys," Christopher said to me and Beta1.

I could see that Christopher was looking very anxious about facing his family. I know he doesn't want me here for my own good, but I'm willing to stand by him, no matter what. I could tell that me and Beta1's presence were putting him a little more at ease, so that was good enough for me. He extended his finger out and pressed a small round button next to the door. It let out a small chime that I could hear from inside the house. As I sensed someone approaching, my shyness got the better of me and I ran to hide behind Christopher's legs like I sometimes do. The door opened, revealing a taller, but younger person with blonde hair.

"Hey Travis," Christopher said, happy to see the person.

"Hey Chris, what's up," the boy responded. He then looked down to see Beta1 and me, peering behind Christopher's right leg. "You know dad doesn't allow pokémon here. You should probably put them inside their pokéballs before you get caught."

"Yeah, I'm going to have to say no for several reasons," Christopher said back to this Travis. I can only assume that the two are brothers. "I'll explain in a minute."

An older woman with short brown hair, dressed in a business suit came to the door. I take it this is his mother. She looks very tired, but her spirit became a lot brighter when she saw her son finally home.

"Hi son!" she exclaimed cheerily, giving him a tight hug. "It's been weeks since I've heard from you. You haven't called home or anything. Have you been sick? Were you hurt?"

"I'm fine mom, really. I just never got around to calling. Let's just say recently, I've had little phone access, due to work traveling."

"I didn't think your job would involve too much travel." she said confused.

"You can call it a new job description." Christopher said, trying not to give everything away immediately.

"Well come on inside and talk. Stay a while," she said invitingly. That was, until she saw me and Beta1 standing beside him. "Oh, I didn't know you'd have any creatures with you," she said, now changing to a colder tone. "I thought I told you if you visit, don't bring your work home with you."

"Sorry, but I'm keeping them out right now. This is Beta1," he said directing her attention to Beta1, "and this is Naomi," he said stepping out-of-the-way to fully expose me.

Nervous not to make myself look bad, I bowed my head as a show of respect.

**"It's a pleasure to meet you ma'am,"** I told her nervously. I didn't like the way she was glaring at me.

"Did that thing just talk?" she asked sounding both confused and annoyed.

"Sorry," Christopher apologized to her. "Naomi's a psychic, so she can talk using telepathy."

"Oh great, a psychic," she replied with a demeaning tone. She sighed for a moment rubbing her head and finally looked back up. "Well at least it has good manners. Fine, you can keep them out. But I don't want to see any weird tricks or creepy psychic stuff, understood," she said addressing me.

**"Yes ma'am, no psychic powers, I promise,"** I said, trying to assure her that I would obey her. I didn't want to leave any bad impressions on her, since she already doesn't like me.

"The same goes for your cyber duck," she said looking at Beta1.

Beta1 seemed to take offense to being called that, though he didn't want to make a scene. I could also see that Christopher was becoming impatient with his mother's rudeness, but like Beta1 remained silent.

I looked around the inside of the house as we walked in. Everything was decorated very warmly, with lots of tables, chairs, thick rugs, and various objects. The walls were all either a deep, rich, red or a very light cream color. And the decorations were very classical themed, like they were from an older time. But what I noticed most of all had been the cleanliness of the house.

We were directed into a room full of chairs with a short table in the middle of the room to sit and talk. As I started to climb up onto a chair to sit next to Christopher, I could immediately sense a bit of anger coming from his mother. She peered at me sternly, hinting for me to not sit on the chair. While I didn't understand why, I did as she suggested and sat on the floor with Beta1. Christopher was at least nice enough to sit on the floor with me, which caused his mother to roll her eyes as she sat down on the other side of the room. Christopher's brother, as well as his younger sister joined us. She was still very young, and while she was nervous to see me and Beta1, she seemed very curious about us. At least she didn't have the same negative feelings towards us as the other two members of Christopher's family had.

For the next fifteen minutes, Christopher chatted with everyone about how his job working in Littleroot Town had gone, trying not to reveal yet about his journey. I think he wants to wait for his father to come to talk about that. Soon, a tall, imposing figure entered the room wearing a business suit similar to his mothers'. I believe that this was his father.

"Hey dad," Christopher said trying to sound happy as he walked over to his father.

His father didn't really say anything, but rather looked displeased with seeing his son.

"You should have called before coming. I thought I taught you it was rude to show up without warning?" he said.

"Sorry about that, but I was just passing through town, so I thought I'd say hi before leaving," Christopher explained.

"Passing through?" his father said confused. He then looked over to see me and Beta1, which he quickly became angry seeing us. I stepped back a little, frightened by him. "Chris," he grumbled.

"Please just let them stay," Christopher pleaded. "I promise they won't be a problem."

His father looked over to the mother, who just nodded. He sighed and gave in. "You're just lucky I had a good day at work today. Fine, but if I change my mind, you put them away. Got it?"

"Thanks dad," Christopher said looking a little happier. But now would be the time he'd have to tell them. Which from what he told me about them before doesn't sound like it'll go very well. His father sat down in the seat next to the mother, and Christopher went back over to stand next to us.

"Listen, mom, dad, I have something to confess," Christopher said.

"Confess what?" his father asked.

"I no longer work for Professor Birch," he said.

"You were fired?" his mother asked. "Good, I told you that job was no good anyways."

"So what, you were joking about the moving through town thing and need to stay here?" his father said. "Well fine, but you're going to have to pay rent and get rid of your pokémon. You know the rules."

"I wasn't fired," Christopher corrected them. "And I don't need to stay here. I'm heading to Dewford Island for training."

"Training?" his mother said confused. "For what? Oh god, you don't mean?"

Christopher nodded. "Yeah, I'm currently on a journey. I'm a pokémon trainer."

His dad had a look of fury in his eyes. "I thought we had taught you not to go that route," he said. "It's a fool's journey that will only end with your failure or death."

"Glad to hear your confidence. Always good to know I've got home support," Christopher said somewhat sarcastically. This made both of his parents mad.

"Don't you talk back to us like that," the father said. "After all we did to raise you, and you do this to us?"

"I didn't do this to spite you. In fact I would have probably tried keeping this a secret from you," Christopher said. "But I promised a friend I'd tell you in person. You at least deserve the truth."

"Don't think you can make yourself look like the better person here," his mother said coldly. "You know how much we hate trainers. They're selfish, rude, and waste their whole lives pretending to be kids."

"I'm playing kid, even though you have to be an adult to become a trainer. I think that's contradictory," Christopher retorted.

His father walked across the room to him and smacked him hard across the face, knocking him down to the ground. "What did I say about talking back?" he yelled angrily.

Me and Beta1 tried helping Christopher up. He had a large red hand print on the side of his face where his father struck him. It was already starting to bruise a little.

**"Christopher, are you okay?"** I asked him worried. I could sense a great amount of both anger and sadness in him. His mind was heavily conflicted with emotions, so much so that I started to feel the same way too. A few tears started to form in my eyes, but when Christopher saw this, he wiped them off for me and gave me a smile, trying to show that he was okay.

**"I'm fine Naomi,"** he said telepathically. **"I'm just about done here."**

I nodded and stepped back a little as he stood back up.

"Okay, I'm just going to be leaving now," Christopher said, not wanting to stay much longer. "But listen, even if you don't approve of what I'm doing, you're still my parents and I still love you." He then turned to his mother. "Mom?"

"Don't bother coming back here," she said irritably. "You're not welcome here."

"Dad?" Christopher said turning to his father who had turned his back on him.

"You're not my son," he said in a dark and vengeful tone. He refused to even look Christopher in the eyes anymore.

Christopher sighed as he began to leave with me and Beta1 following him. "Well see you Travis," he said to his brother who had kept quiet the entire time. "Bye sis," he said to his little sister.

We left after that without saying another word. We began to walk towards the docks to meet with the others, but we still kept quiet. I could see that Christopher had a lot on his mind, which was understandable. He looked hollow and weak as he tried to keep himself together, but when we reached a street with no one else, he sat down on a bench and collapsed his head into his hands as tears ran down his face. I sat beside him to try and comfort him.

**"I'm so sorry Christopher,"** I said. I wish I knew more to say, but that's all that I could think of.

"I knew they'd be mad with me, but I didn't think they'd go so far as to disown me," he muttered.

**"Please don't be sad. You're too good of a person to be sad,"** I said as I wrapped my arms around him.

"Thank you Naomi," Christopher said as he embraced me in his arms. "You have no idea how much that means to me." Tears poured from his eyes as I felt most of his anger from before disappear to be replaced with happiness. His emotions reached out to me, causing me to cry as well. But it wasn't tears of sadness, but of sweet bliss and joy.

**"Hey come on,"** I said smiling. **"You shouldn't be crying like this in public."**

He wiped off his face looking stronger and more confident again. "You're right Naomi. If I keep acting like this, I will be nothing more than a kid like they said to me. What's say we prove them wrong?"

**"So are you going to be okay?"** I asked.

He let out a little sigh, showing that he still wasn't entirely okay, but he did seem to be handling himself better now. "Yeah, I'll be fine. At the very least I'm willing to let go and move on. Norman was right, this was a closure that I needed. And while I may never return home, I can move forward without having anything to hold me back."

**"Glad to hear that you're okay. You had me worried back there."**

"Now then, I think we've kept our friends waiting long enough. To Dewford Island then."

(Team Aqua HQ: **North**'s PoV)

The boss has finally given me and my squad another mission. And judging from the pay, I'd say this is a pretty big one. Me and my entire squad of grunts are now waiting to be briefed on the details. But I already know what the main objective is, don't fail. I don't think I can afford another slip up after letting the enemies get the Groudon data. When the leader himself entered the room, all of us stood at attention and saluted him.

"At ease gentlemen," he said to us. "Now then, the enemy has acquired a naval base near the Dewford Islands. Our spies report that they are using it as a research facility for developing new weapons and technology. Your objective is to secure the base for our own personal use. The facility is heavily guarded, so use as much force as you need. But keep as many of the researchers alive. Kill them only if necessary. With some luck, we may have a chance of 'persuading' them to join our side."

The leader stepped down from his podium and walked towards me, grabbing my shirt by the collar and pulling me closer. "Can I trust you not to fail me North?"

With still trying to maintain my dignity, I saluted him. "Consider the mission done sir."

"Good," he said letting go and returning to the head of the room. "These people were fools for thinking they could challenge Team Aqua gentlemen. So let them live and die as fools. A detailed list of the objectives have been sent to each of you. You are to read over it and head out tomorrow morning. Do I make myself clear?"

"Sir, yes sir!" we all shouted out, saluting him with a strong sense of pride.

"Dismissed," he said walking out of the room.

(Petalburg City: **Freeman**'s PoV)

It took me and Hiroka nearly a half-hour to find the man Norman had recommended to us, Mr. Briney. But when we finally got there, we found that he wasn't home. There was only his granddaughter, a young girl named Elizabeth, who was looking after his fisherman's store that he apparently runs. She said that he left several days ago and hasn't come back, but offered to let us stay and see if he comes back sometime today. Hiroka wasn't happy that she was going to have wait. She's been excited ever since she first heard that we'd be going to the Dewford Islands. I would say that it's her favorite place to go, but she seems to get excited over a lot of places, so I can't really say. But anyways, since we'd have to wait, she's been dragging me around shopping.

After about an hour, we decided to return to the shop to wait for Chris.

He came in with Naomi sitting on one of his shoulders and Beta1 following close behind him. His eyes looked a little red and his hair was more messed up than it usually is, so I take it things went bad for him.

"Hey guys, so how's the ride looking?" he asked in a surprisingly normal tone. I would have expected him to sound more depressed or something.

"Oh, um... it's not here. Apparently our captain went on a trip. His granddaughter said it was to Rustboro City, so we're not sure when he's coming back. But anyways, how'd things go with you?"

"Oh fine," Chris said. "Beta1 made a full recovery, and the nurse said for Naomi to get plenty of rest and to go easy on the battles for a few days."

I could tell he was avoiding the actual subject. "I meant with your parents," I said to him.

"Oh right, that," he said in a deeper voice. "I'd rather not talk about that right now, but maybe I'll tell you later."

"I see," I said, respecting his personal space. "Sorry."

We didn't want to sit and wait for Captain Briney if we didn't know when he'd be here, so we decided to look around at some of the other person who could take us. But everyone we found was either too expensive or had a terrible boat that we wouldn't want to take. So as it was starting to get towards sunset, we decided to check back at the shop to see if Mr. Briney returned. We walked into the shop and were saw a familiar face. It was Brendan, the Professor's son.

"Hey Brendan, long time no see," I said to him.

"Hey Freeman, Chris, and who's this lovely lady," Brendan said as he posed in front of Hiroka.

"Hey, I'm Hiroka," Hiroka said, flattered by his compliment.

"That's an interesting name you've got. Maybe you can tell me some more interesting things about you over dinner."

"Wow, when did you change into such a ladies man?" Chris asked him.

"Right after I got my first gym badge," he said pulling out a case with one badge in it.

"Nice. Who's it from?" Chris asked.

"Roxanne, the Rustboro gym leader. She uses all rock and ground types for her gym, so with my Grovyle at my side, it was easy."

"So I see you evolved your starter," I analyzed.

"Yep," Brendan said as he pulled out a pokéball. "Come on out," he shouted, releasing a tall, green lizard with long feathers attached to its arms, forehead, and legs. It crossed its arms as it stood tall with a prideful glint in its yellow eyes. I pulled out my notebook and took the chance to document it.

"Very impressive," I said. "It looks like it's in really good shape."

"So I see you two became field researchers for my dad then. Is that why you're here?" he asked.

"I'm a field researcher, but Chris isn't. He's now a trainer like you," I said.

"Oh really," he said a little cocky. "So how many badges have you got?"

"Zero," Chris said. "But I fought Norman if that's something."

"Yeah, I tried to beat him too. But man was he hard," Brendan said remembering when he tried to beat Norman.

"That Vigoroth was insane. It nearly broke Beta1 with its power," Chris said shuddering a little.

"Wait, he used a Spinda on me. He didn't use it on you?" Brendan asked.

"Oh he did. It was too tough for Naomi, my Ralts," Chris said quickly introducing her to him.

I saw Naomi quickly wave at him and smile, which by the way he looked a little surprised probably meant that she spoke to him telepathically. But he quickly acknowledged that it was telepathy and didn't ask about it.

"But Beta1 on the other hand," Chris continued, "beat the stuffing out of it like it was a Teddiursa."

Brendan's jaw dropped for a moment, amazed to hear that he was able to beat it. "Dang, my pokémon couldn't even make a dent in it. How could you?"

"Ha, you couldn't beat it," Chris said as he laughed a little.

"Shut up, I outrank you," Brendan said with a bit of a bruised ego.

"So anyways Brendan," I asked, "why are you here?"

"Oh, I rescued this old guy's Wingull and he promised me a ride to Dewford Island," Brendan explained.

"I thought I told you not to call me old," we heard from a room in the back. Out came an old man who was balled, somewhat round, and had a long, white beard. He was dressed like a fisherman, so I assumed that this was the Mr. Briney we had been waiting for.

**And we're done. Again, sorry people about this being late. But I'll try to be more punctual next week. Anyways, you know how these things go. If you like this story, you can help us out by favoriting and following this story. Also, please feel free to leave your comments or ideas down in the box below. If you want, you can try writing your own character that we may pick to be in the story. Rules for that are in the author's profile, and you can find it there. And please don't leave any rude or negative reviews in the comments below. I appreciate it.**


	10. Chapter 10

_**Pokémon: Christopher and Naomi**_

**Hey people, I hope any of you in school or college are hanging on. I've had a couple of big tests and papers I've had to work on, but here I am with chapter 10. The last two and a half chapters have so far been all on the same day, and guess what? So is this one. But not to worry, this chapter will be finishing that up. So enjoy.**

**Chris: So did you do anything for Halloween?**

**Me: I went out and bought ten pounds of candy if that's what you mean.**

**Freeman: Sounds unhealthy.**

**Me: Swedish fish and dark chocolate. That's how I roll.**

**Hiroka: Gthe rr rilla good.**

**Freeman: Don't type when you're eating Hiroka. We can't understand you.**

**Hiroka: (swallows) I said they're really good.**

**Me: Hey, get out of my fish. Mine.**

**Naomi: Can I please have some?**

**Me: Sure here you go.**

**Hiroka: Hey, why does she get some.**

**Me: Because she asked.**

**Hiroka: Can I have some?**

**Me: No.**

**Chris: I'm doing the disclaimer thing now.**

**Hiroka: Give me those fish!**

**Me: Nooo!**

**Chris: The following is a non-profit, fan-based fiction. Christopher Kamori in no way owns anything that is related to Pokémon. Only the original characters and content are his. Please support the official franchise.**

**Me: They're my fish.**

Chapter ten: Burning Bridges

(Petalburg City: **Chris**'s PoV)

When I heard the name Mr. Briney, I assumed that he would look like a sea man, if that makes any sense. And he definitely did. He has the short, white, scraggly beard and the smell of saltwater on him. His eyes seemed a little scorched, probably from years in the sun, and had to squint a little to look at us clearly.

"Hmm... So are these friends of yours Brendan?" he asked in a jovial tone.

"Sort of," Brendan stated. "These are a few guys who work for my dad, or in one of their cases worked for him."

"Hello sir, I'm Freeman," Freeman said as he shook Mr. Briney's hand.

"And I'm Chris," I said introducing myself as well.

After Mr. Briney shook my hand, he looked at Naomi, who was obviously a bit nervous, as usual, about meeting someone new. "And hello little one," he said in a higher tone like many people would use on an infant or small child.

**"Hello,"** Naomi responded shyly, waving at him while trying to hide her face slightly.

Mr. Briney chuckled cheerily at her shyness. "What an adorable daughter you have," he said to me. It was clear that he didn't recognize Naomi as being a pokémon, but we decided not to correct him.

"And I'm Hiroka," Hiroka said holding out her hand for him to shake.

Mr. Briney looked like he was having slight difficulty seeing her hand. He reached out and then did what seemed to be a forced trip as his hand went past hers and grabbed onto her right boob, causing her to turn a bright red from embarrassment and scream.

"Grandpa!" Mr. Briney's granddaughter, Elizabeth yelled to him.

"PERVERT," she yelled, smacking him to the ground.

We saw him scramble a little in his vest real quick as he fixed something up then stood back up with two pieces of tissue in his nose as he laughed a little.

"Oh I'm sorry, I seem to be a clumsy fool some days," he said, clearly not sorry about the offense.

Brendan sighed a little, rubbing his forehead. "Sorry guys, he tends to do this occasionally.

"Eh, what do you mean," Mr. Briney tried to laugh off.

"What do you think old man," Brendan retorted.

"I thought I said not to call me old!" he yelled.

"I had to put up with this guy all the way from Rustboro to here putting up with this," Brendan continued. "We had to go past a big flower shop on the way here, and you can imagine how bad that went."

"You okay Hiroka?" I asked with some concern looking over to her.

She was feeling both of them with an uncomfortable look. "It feels weird having only one grabbed."

Everyone else looked a bit confused at her reaction, except for Mr. Briney. He was about to say "I can fix that" with the intent of grabbing the other, but everyone else, including Naomi, yelled "No" to him.

After that uncomfortable moment, Mr. Briney straitened himself back up and tried returning to his original, kind-old-man attitude.

"So anyways..." I said, trying to change the subject to something different, "Brendan. I saw you made the front page of the news. What was with that?" I asked.

"You didn't read?" Brendan said. "I saved Devon Corp, twice," he said in a rightfully cocky and proud tone. A couple of grunts from some Team Aqua infiltrated the Corporation's head quarters to try and steal some expensive goods, but me and my pokémon managed to beat them. They even tried it a second time with me there to stop them. And this time, I also managed to rescue this old man-err I mean normal man's Wingull from one of the grunts."

"I owe this kid big time for rescuing my darling, Peeko from the clutches of those goons," Mr. Briney said. "So he said he needed a ride to Dewford Island, and I told him I'd give him a ride for free."

"So what about you guys?" Brendan asked. "Why are you here?"

"Norman asked us to see Mr. Briney here to get a ride to Dewford Island as well," I explained. "Of course seeing as what you did, now I'm feeling a little less deserving."

"Nonsense," Mr. Briney said. "Any friend of Brendan is welcome to get a ride from me. But there's one catch."

"No you can't squeeze Hiroka's other boob," Freeman said.

"Sounds like someone's a little jealous Freeman," Hiroka said with a deviant smile on her lips. "Is there someone else you want to do the job?" She was saying it in a joking tone though, so we all knew she wasn't serious... I think.

I didn't think a black guy's face could turn as red as Freeman's, but it seems like I was wrong. "Hiroka!" Freeman said a little embarrassed.

She just laughed at him though.

"Ahem," Mr. Briney said directing our attention back to him. "No, unfortunately not that. Elizabeth won't let me back in if I do that."

"It serves you right too grandpa," Elizabeth said from behind the register.

"Just note that I'm no longer a captain. I gave up those days a long time ago," he said with a look that showed he was remembering his days long ago at sea. "So this is only a one way trip. If you go to Dewford Island, you better have a way of getting off of it on your own."

The five of us talked it over for a few minutes until we all came to the agreeance that what he was asking wasn't unreasonable. Plus we will probably be spending a few weeks on the island training and preparing for my gym battle. Not to mention Freeman will want to study the teeming wildlife on the island I'm sure.

"Okay, we accept," Freeman said, "so long as you agree not to sexually harass our friend," pointing to Hiroka.

Mr. Briney's hidden perverted nature seemed a little disappointed, but the rest of him was willing to agree.

"Now then," he said, "there're beds on my boat for all of you to sleep. Get plenty of rest, and make sure you have everything you need, because we're leaving tomorrow morning at six; and you're either on the boat or your getting left behind."

Man, what is it with old people and getting up so early? At any rate, for the rest of the night, we set up our stuff on the boat. Surprisingly enough, it was a pretty nice boat. Mr. Briney said he use to be a captain, but of what? Because he had to have made a bunch to be able to afford such a nice vessel. The interior wasn't damp or in disrepair, and almost seemed like a second house. The walls and floor were wooden, and the walls had a dark-green, patterned wallpaper. The lighting had a subtle, warm glow to it, and all the furniture was mahogany with gold trimming. There was a couch, a rectangular coffee table, and a side chair. One the wall on the furthest end there were two bunk-beds tucked into an area like they were a separate room, probably for privacy. And off to one end we could see a poker table, probably for some of Mr. Briney's friends.

All of us were a little shaky when first getting on the boat. I was able to gain my balance quickly, which is strange. On normal, flat ground, I tend to be a little clumsy or prone to stumbling, yet I was the first to gain my balance here. Maybe the waving balances me out. But anyways, Naomi was slow to gain her balance and fell over several times as she tried to support herself by holding onto my legs. Finally, I picked her up and carried her before she hurt herself. Hiroka and Brendan took a while to get their sea legs, but were eventually able to muster up the balance to walk around normally like me. But poor Freeman. He could walk just fine, shortly after the time I did, but I remember him once telling me that he hates boats, and can get sea sick. When we saw him run over to one side of the ship, we turned away, knowing what he was doing. Mr. Briney got a small tablet for him that he said would take away his sea sickness, which Freeman was grateful for.

That night, I needed some supplies for the trip and asked Hiroka to look after Naomi while I was gone. Freeman and Brendan also needed a few things and decided to go along with me. But since it was now late, most of the stores were closed, which meant that we would have to go to the 24-hour general department store. We shopped around and grabbed various supplies. Brendan got some repels, rope, and medicine; Freeman got batteries, writing supplies, and pokéballs; and I got plenty of food, as well as some extra flint and steel. But on our way to the check out, we passed a section with swim trunks. None of us had packed a pair and decided to get one. After all, what's the point of going to an island if we're not going to swim. Plus, with the weather getting even hotter with Spring, it'll be the perfect time for swimming. I feel a little bad though not giving Naomi and Hiroka a chance to buy a swimsuit. Of course I'm sure they have plenty of stores on the island for them.

(**Hiroka**'s PoV)

I was actually glad that the boys decided to go out shopping. Because now, while they're buying food and stuff, I can take Naomi and go swim suit shopping!

"Come on Naomi, we're going out," I said to her.

**"But I thought we were staying here,"** she said.

"No. You see, now that the boys are away, we can go swim suit shopping."

She looked a little confused at what I said. I guess growing up in the forest, she never knew about that. **"I don't get it. What's that, and why do Christopher and the others have to be away to do it?"**

"Relax, it'll be fun," I said eager to go. "Now come on, I know a great shop that stays open late."

She still seemed hesitant, especially without Christopher around, but I finally was able to convince her to go. It was a small, but very nice shop a few blocks away that specialized in women's swim wear. When we got there, I excitedly tried on the different suits that I found. A few red ones, a blue one with white stripes, ones that were bright green or yellow, ruffled ones, lace ones, the list goes on. And just as I had suspected, they did have an area for the human-like pokémon like Bellossome, Medicham, and of course Ralts. I found a couple of really cute pairs for her to try on until I found one that was perfect for her. I sent her in the changing room to try it on, and waited for her to come out.

"Come on, you can show me," I said trying to get her to come out.

**"Hiroka, I don't know. This doesn't feel right,"** she said in a shy tone.

"I'm sure it looks great on you. Now just show me. Please."

She nervously stepped out of the changing both in two-piece swimsuit that matched her bright, green hair perfectly. She turned to the side, hiding her face a little with her hair. With her only standing a foot tall, with pure white, flawless skin, and those cute reddish-pink horns on her head, she was too cute. She's like a little doll. And her acting so shy makes her even cuter. "So kawaii," I whispered to myself. Christopher would probably be mad at me right now for playing doll with his pokémon, but I can't help it. She's too cute not to dress up.

**"So is this good,"** she asked unsure.

"It's perfect," I said. "The green really complements your hair."

**"Okay,"** she said somewhat apathetically. **"But do we really need to buy this?"**

"We're going to a beach island, so of course we do," I said.

**"But Christopher said that we should save our money for food and medicine. We barely have enough for that as it is,"** she said worried.

"It's okay, trust me," I said reassuringly. "Besides, it's sometimes good to spend a little something on yourself."

**"I don't really understand, but okay,"** she said.

She went back into the fitting room to change back into her white dress. After we paid for our swimsuits, we headed back to the boat to hide our stuff before the guys got back. I get the feeling Naomi doesn't trust me yet, even after several weeks of trying to get to know her. But she's just so distant. She rarely leaves Chris's side, and when we're alone she doesn't say much. This isn't like me. I'm usually really good at making friends with people (and pokémon), but with her, I'm stumped. Oh well. I'm sure she'll eventually warm up to me.

(**Chris**'s PoV)

We finally got back from the store with more than enough supplies for our training on Dewford Island. Mr. Briney had wanted us to sleep on board the boat so he can leave early tomorrow with no delays. When I walked in and saw Naomi, she seemed a little uncomfortable, but happy to see me. I have a feeling Hiroka's been up to something. She seems to always do something with Naomi when I'm gone.

Brendan got a little more annoying tonight. He told us several stories about battles he had been in, most of which seemed to be exaggerated. I didn't know him too well when I worked at the labs, since he usually didn't hang around there. I could tell early on that he was egotistical and ambitious, but he had a sense of respect and dignity. But now since he's been away from home, he's turned into a bit more of a jerk, and even somewhat of a creep. He made several advances on Hiroka, which she first passed off as joking, but after the second time started to creep her and everyone else out. By the third time Freeman stepped in and told him to knock it off. I couldn't help but notice Hiroka admiring Freeman's actions. I don't know what's up with Brendan, but I hope he snaps out of it soon.

After a while, the others got tired and started heading off to bed. First Hiroka and Brendan went. Then, while Naomi tried to stay up with me and Freeman, she got too tired and fell asleep. She's had a long day so she deserves her rest. We've all had a long day today I guess. After putting her to bed, me and Freeman decided to head outside on the ship's deck to talk.

"You know I hate being up here," Freeman said, looking a little green from the boat's rocking.

"I'm sure you'll get use to it. Just trying going with the movements," I said trying to encourage him.

"Speaking of movements, how are you holding up?" he asked me.

"You're talking about the deal with my home aren't you?" I replied.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he said.

I sighed as I stared off into the ocean waves and the starry night sky on the horizon. "They rejected me," I said, trying to not get too emotional. "Told me to leave and never come back."

"Chris... I... I'm sorry," Freeman said, lost for words.

"Don't be. It's fine," I said.

"But they were your family Chris. Don't you feel anything?" Freeman asked.

"Freeman, back in middle school, I was bullied a lot. And I mean by everyone," I said.

"What does this have to do with anything?" Freeman asked confused.

"Most would just ignore me, while some would harass, humiliate, and even beat me sometimes. I never knew why, but I had to accept it. It hurt though, having to live everyday as an outcast from the world. I think I even remember wanting to committing suicide once or twice, but never actually tried to go through with it. Something kept holding me back I guess. Suffice to say I had a very low self-esteem at this point in my life. But then one day, when a group of guys were beating me up, this guy from one of the upper classes stopped them, and helped me out. That was the first time anyone had done that for me. The two of us talked for a while, just talking. I can't remember if any of it was that important, but I told him about my self-esteem. I told him about the suicidal thoughts, and the depression, and everything else that was going through my head. And before he left, he gave me one piece of advice. He said, 'Look Chris, life will always find ways to throw you down. And you can either let it get to you, or you can look past it and move on; become something greater. Those other guys, ignore them. Only you can decide what kind of person you are Chris. So are you going to let yourself fall to ruin, or are you going to let it go and get past it?' He left after saying that, and I never saw him again. Apparently he was moving away that day to the Kalos region. But I never forgot his words. So now whenever I find myself in times like this, I'm not going to be weak and let it get to me. I'll build a bridge and get over it. Only in this case, my bridge is burning, and I can never go back. But I'm okay with that, I'm done. There isn't a need to go back home anymore."

Freeman had sat patiently listening to my story with great concern. "This is a part of my life I had suppressed," I continued, "and never told anyone in the future about. I never told my friends in high school, or my parents, or Naomi. So this is something I've had on my chest for a while. I'm glad to have finally gotten it out. Maybe this is something else I can move past."

"So are you sure you'll be fine?" Freeman asked.

"Burned bridges Freeman," I said. "Burned bridges."

"You seem to be burning a lot of you bridges lately Chris," Freeman said. "You are going to leave some unburned right? There will be things you face that will force you to go back to something. If you just keep leaving everything in life behind, you'll never have something to go back to."

"Which is why I'm doing this, this journey thing," I said. "To become strong enough so that I don't have to be forced back, but build a new life that I can want to go back to."

"Well I've got your back Chris. Good luck with your goals," Freeman said supportingly.

"And good luck with yours Freeman," I returned.

"To old lives gone,"

"And to new beginnings."

After that, the two of us headed off to bed with the others. When I got to my bed, I saw Naomi still awake.

"You couldn't sleep either huh," I said to her.

She shook her head no. **"I was listening to you and Freeman. I'm sorry,"** she apologized.

"It's fine," I said, not upset at her eavesdropping.

**"And Christopher?"** she asked.

"Yes Naomi?"

**"I've got your back too,"** she said, referencing what Freeman said earlier.

I smiled and patted her on the head. "Thanks Naomi."

I climbed in bed, and the two of us fell asleep rather quickly. I knew that the next time we'd awake, it'd be a new day, with a new life ahead of us. All of us.

**Naomi: If you like this story, you can help us out by favoriting and following this story. Also, please feel free to leave your comments or ideas down in the box below. If you want, you can try writing your own character that we may pick to be in the story. Rules for that are in the author's profile, and you can find it there. And please don't leave any rude or negative reviews in the comments below. We appreciate it.**

**Me: She ate all my candy guys.**

**Hiroka: Ha ha!**

**Chris: You just got beat by a girl.**

**Me: Do you want to fight her?**

**Chris:...**

**Freeman: Ha!**

**Me: Anyways, I hope everyone reading this has a good weekend (or week). Good luck with any of your upcoming tests or whatever, and remember to have fun. And just a message to those of you who have thought about suicide in the past, or even maybe right now. Please don't. There's always someone out there who cares about your existence. Even if they're unspoken, or remain silent. I don't know who you are, or what's going on in your life, but you can always start over or move on. You are a good person, whether you know it or not. And as my younger brother once said, "Nothing's worth ending your life for." Anyways, see you guys next time.**

**Naomi: We hope to see you again soon.**


	11. Chapter 11

**_Pokémon: Christopher and Naomi_**

**Me: Okay, hello once again people, and welcome to another chapter of Pokémon: Christopher and Naomi.**

**Chris: I think they know what story this is.**

**Me: They still deserve a friendly greeting.**

**Chris: So where's everyone else.**

**Me: They're already waiting in the story.**

**Chris: Do I have a minute?**

**Me: Yeah, you're good. Want to do the disclaimers so we can get started?**

**Chris: Sure. The following is a non-profit, fan-based fiction. Christopher Kamori in no way owns anything that is related to Pokémon. Only the original characters and content are his. Please support the official franchise.**

Chapter eleven: Drafted

(Route 104, April 15th: **Hiroka**'s PoV)

I woke up to the feel of the boat rocking. I guess that old man, Briney decided to start the trip. And from what I could see out the window, it was too early for me to get up. Seriously, what is it was old people waking up so early? Anyways, whatever. I cuddled Liechi who was still asleep next to me as I tried to go back to sleep. But due to the constant movement of the boat, I stayed awake. I tried shifting some to get more comfortable, when the boat apparently hit a big wave, causing me to fall out of bed, on top of my Pikachu. This startled her awake, causing her to shock me a little.

As I laid on the floor a little stunned, she squeezed out from underneath me, apologizing for the shock. I smiled and tried to laugh off the tingling in my arms as I petted her on the head. When I saw some of the guys shifting in their bunks, I decided to get up and go clean myself up before I accidentally wake them up too. Looking in the bathroom mirror, I saw my hair standing up in a mess from the static. For as long as I've been an electric type trainer, I've still never gotten use to my hair getting messed up like this.

After I had showered, cleaned up, and gotten dressed, I decided to step out on the upper deck to get some fresh air. I could finally see the sun rising over the horizon, making one of those scenes like you'd see in a hotel pamphlet. Liechi and my other pokémon jumped onto the side railing, enchanted by the sight of the seas. I haven't seen the ocean much since I arrived here from Sinnoh, and that was months ago. It's weird, because my mom told me that most of her time she spent traveling in Hoenn had been near beaches and islands. I guess I'll have to go to the other side of the region to find more of that.

After a couple of minutes, Brendan walked outside as well, stretching his arms as he walked out of the door. His clothes were wrinkled and messed up since he had slept in them, and he was covering up whatever bed head he might have had with his white hat.

"Hey sexy, what's up," he said while yawning.

"Not in the mood Brendan," I said, annoyed by his greeting.

"Sounds like someone's not a morning person," he said in a casual manner.

"I'm just getting tired of you acting like a creep all the time," I replied to him. "No girl's going to like that."

"Hey, a lot of girls have wanted to go out with me," he said, defending himself.

"And why would they do that?" I asked him, not entirely believing him.

"Ladies love a strong trainer like me," he said boastfully.

"Oh really," I said as I looked to Liechi. "Then how about you show me just how strong you are. My Pikachu versus your Grovyle?"

"Sounds interesting," he said reaching for his pokéball. "But what are the stakes?"

"How about if I win, you stop hitting on me," I said as Liechi shook out her fur, preparing for battle.

"Fine," Brendan said. "And if I win, you go on a date with me."

"Alright, you're on," I said, now more awake and fired up. Liechi was now ready too, and started discharging a few sparks from her cheeks.

(**Naomi**'s PoV)

I found myself sitting in the middle of a quiet grove, as the morning dew brought a beautiful scent to the woods around me. The air was warm, but the wind blowing through my hair and around my dress made everything feel pleasant. And just from the gaps in the canopy, did streaming dots of sunlight shine. The trees hummed with the sound of Taillows chirping and Nuzleafs whistling. But what I found most enduring in this perfect place was my mother, who's lap I was laying my head on. She was deep in a meditative trance while she stroked her fingers through my hair and rubbed the horn on my head, sending me happy and loving messages. I did not know how this was happening, but I never questioned it, afraid that it would all go away. Inside my mother's head, I heard gentle singing in her voice that I've missed so much. I found myself humming along with her, lost in the emotions of all of this.

But then a familiar turn of events happened. I sensed my father running through the woods to us, badly hurt. He was bracing his right arm that was bleeding badly, but not enough for him to pass out. The rest of him was beaten up badly as well.

**"My love, Naomi, wake up!"** he said to us telepathically. **"We're all in great danger here. We have to go now!"**

Immediately my mother snapped out of her meditation and stood up, holding me in her arms. **"What's wrong my love? What happened?"** she asked afraid.

**"The Mightyena are closing in, there's too many of them for me to fight off."** he said.

**"Then we must run,"** my mother said.

**"Mother, what's happening? I'm scared."** I said.

**"It's okay Naomi, we'll be okay,"** my mother said, trying to stay calm.

We ran through the woods with great haste, unsure of where to go. I wondered why they didn't just teleport away to somewhere else, but they must have had some reason for not doing so. My only guess is that whatever we were running from knew where we could go. I sensed the presence of numerous dark, horrific creatures heading towards us, howling and barking ravenously. Still we ran, trying to get away from what was attacking, when suddenly I saw we were surrounded. On all sides of us were these black, shadowy figures, none of which I could distinguish any shape or form of, other than red eyes that glared towards us. My mother set me down, and her and my father stood on both sides of me to protect me. I was too scared to move as I stood helplessly, only able to pray that we would all be okay.

**"Naomi, just stay behind us. Your father and I will protect you,"** my mother said as she held out her hands and charged up her psychic energy through her body. I could feel my father do the same thing. Even though he was still injured, he poised both of his bladed arms, ready to fight to the end.

The shadowy figures leaped from around us and wrapped themselves around both of my parents, consuming them in darkness. They were able to shake them off with psychic blasts and any punches they could manage to do, but every time, the shadows would reform and strike again. I could see the shadows fading away parts of both of my parents skin as blood would pour out. My mother screamed in pain each time she was attacked, but would still try to fight. Eventually, the army of darkness grew in size and strength, until neither one of my parents could fight. As my mother struggled to draw breath, another shadow was about to finish her off, when suddenly my father jumped in and took the hit. His body was engulfed in the evil that was attacking us, and his body faded away. The way he shouted out in pain left a haunting image in my mind that I could never forget, as his bones in his arms and legs were showing and being twisted and broken. My mother grabbed me and did whatever she could to run away. I could feel her drawing from her vital very essence that she needed to survive, just to pull off a teleport. But it only got us both about fifty feet away, partly in some thorny bushes. The barbs stabbed and cut at me, but the fear and horror that I was feeling made that pain seem insignificant. My mother could no longer move, and I could see the life fading from her eyes. The glowed a deep and beautiful shade of purple, just like mine, and I could see tears forming in her eyes as she looked at me.

**"Mother please, come on,"** I cried as I tried to help her up. **"Please don't go, I'm scared."** I could feel tears flowing down my face as I couldn't stand to see what was going on. And to make things worse, the thorns that we were in were jabbing further into my skin, leaving tears and cuts that bled onto the branches. I could now sense the shadows heading for us, ready to kill us both, then, in the last bit of life that my mother had, she kissed me on the cheek and said, **"Take care my sweet child."** Her eyes glowed brightly, and I was sent away. She had used any strength she had in her to teleport me as far away from here as she possibly could. I found myself in middle of the forest somewhere, but wherever I was, I wasn't too far away from the monsters that attacked us. I heard some howling, and a few of them broke away from their group to hunt me down. I ran as fast as I could, trying to wipe away the tears in my eyes so they wouldn't hinder my vision. The more I ran, the more I could feel the muscles in my legs aching. I fell down a dirt slope, giving me several bruises, but I had to ignore them. I couldn't stop running, or else all my mother and father gave up would be in vain. I couldn't let them down. So I kept running. But eventually, the barking and howling of the shadows grew louder. I didn't want to look back, but I knew I was almost out of time.

Finally, I saw light peering through the trees. The muscles in my legs gave out, and I tripped falling through them, out into an open area. There was a sparkling pond a short ways in front of me, but there was nothing else. Nowhere for me to hide or run away, and I couldn't move anymore. I struggled to pull myself away, but I knew something was missing. Or more over, someone. I looked around crying out for help, but there was no one to hear me. I was alone, soon to die. I looked behind me to see the horror of several black figures jumping out to consume me like my parents, and then it all ended.

The world around me faded away into complete nothingness. The pain of the thorns, the falling, and the exhaustion were gone, and the dirt and grass that I had been laying on was now soft and full of life. I realized that I was sleeping on Christopher's shirt like I normally do. I could feel him breathing under me as his heart pounded gently, unlike mine that was pumping fast. I felt sweat that had formed on my neck and forehead as I breathed heavily for air. This is a way of waking up that I've unfortunately had to grow use to. Having the same nightmare every night, then waking up, terrified of it. I nuzzled my head into Christopher's chest, sobbing weakly as I tried to forget everything that had happened. Then I felt Christopher's hand reach up and stroke my hair, just like my mother had. He opened his eyes up and looked into mine as he smiled and wiped away my tears.

"Hey, it's okay Naomi. I'm here now, you're perfectly safe," he said to me quietly. "The same dream?"

I nodded my head. **"I'm sorry if I woke you up."**

"No, you're good. Hiroka beat you to that earlier," he said.

Brendan sat up from his bed, still wearing the same clothes from yesterday, as he rubbed his eyes. "You know some of us were trying to sleep," he said groggily.

"Sorry Brendan," Christopher said to him.

"Whatever, I'm awake now," Brendan said, sounding more positive and wide awake. "Besides, this is the time I normally get up." He sprung out of the bunk above us he was sleeping on and stretched a little before heading out.

"I guess he's just a morning person. Oh well," Christopher said.

Since the two of us were awake already, we decided to get up with Brendan. And while he just walked to the upper deck without cleaning up a bit, me and Christopher brushed our teeth and hair, and changed out of our sleep wear. I have Hiroka to thank for my new pair of these things called pajamas. Basically it's a white t-shirt with some sort of colorful design on the front and a pair of soft pants. They feel nice, but I prefer my elegant, white dress. Christopher decided that since everyone else was already up, he should wake Freeman up as well, since he hates it when we let him sleep in. Beta1 had also already woken up by this point, and was returned to his pokéball. We put all of our stuff in our bag and packed up Brendan and Hiroka's stuff as well so they wouldn't forget. Christopher walked into a small kitchen in one of the rooms of the ship where he found some hot tea to make. He mixed it in with some sugar, then gave me a little as well to drink. I've started enjoying it with him whenever we find a place to make some.

(Normal PoV)

Chris and Naomi decided to head up to the upper deck where Brendan had gone to get some fresh air. When the got up there, he could see Brendan and Hiroka on opposite sides of the ship like they were about to battle. The way the sun was rising and the waves were crashing against the boat made for a great setting. The two of them walked past Brendan dropping off his bag and heading over to the side Hiroka was on to watch as they sipped hot tea casually from their cups.

"Morning Hiroka," Chris said in a tired but positive mood as he handed her her bag.

"Hey Chris," Hiroka responded.

"Was Brendan already an asshole this morning?" Chris asked.

"Yeah, but I'm about to fix that," Hiroka said with a hint of blood lust.

"Just try not to break him too hard. I'd like to have some of him to beat later."

"No promises. Liechi, LET'S GO!" she shouted.

Brendan grinned as he prepared to release his pokémon. Grovyle, come on out," he said, sending out his wood gecko pokémon.

Hiroka stood and waited for Brendan to make the first strike, which he didn't hesitate to take.

"Grovyle, use your leer, then quick attack," he ordered.

His pokémon obeyed, and began peering at Hiroka's Pikachu to look for any weak points. Then when he thought he spotted one, he charged in at blinding speed.

Hiroka and Liechi weren't all that concerned with the attack and quickly countered it.

"Dodge it with your agility, and use taunt," Hiroka said.

Her Pikachu's body seemed to lighten up as it bolted to the side, avoiding Grovyle's charge. It then proceeded to start giving insulting gestures and calls to anger Grovyle.

"Follow up with another quick attack Grovyle. Don't stop till you hit it," Brendan said.

Grovyle sprang forward again, but Liechi sidestepped the attack like it did last time. Only this time, Grovyle continued on until he landed on the boat's side railing, and bounced off of it, trying to attack again. But thanks to Liechi's incredible speed, the attacks kept missing. The way that she was dodging though caught Chris and Naomi's eyes. She moved almost like she was dancing or performing tricks. She would leap in the air just over Grovyle's shoulders or would do flips to the side. This is a routine that Hiroka had trained her to do for contest battles, where the main goal is to dodge and mess up the opponent, rather than overpower.

"Just stand still already," Brendan yelled out as his Grovyle kept trying to strike Liechi. Finally he had a clear line of fire, and his Grovyle ran head on, this one looking like it wasn't going to miss. But Hiroka and Liechi smiled again, ready to attack.

"Now Liechi, nuzzle," Hiroka said, putting a cute emphasis on the attack's name.

"Ha, nuzzle," Brendan chuckled. "That sounds like the weakest attack ev..." was all he had time to say before Liechi leaped towards Grovyle. It curled up, avoiding Grovyle's arms that it had intended to strike with, and clinging to its belly. Her cheeks let out small but painful shocks of electricity as it rubbed them against Grovyle, causing his muscles to tense up. When Liechi finally let go, it leaped off the grass type, doing a flip in the air and landing next to Hiroka. Grovyle collapsed to the ground, unable to get up from the paralysis caused by the attack.

"What?! What happened?" Brendan asked confused.

"Brendan, don't you know?" Chris said. "Nuzzle is a move that while not incredibly powerful, paralyzes all non-electric types."

"WHAT?! That's not fair," Brendan exclaimed.

"Baka," Hiroka said tauntingly as her and Liechi both stuck their tongues out at him.

Grovyle struggled to stand back up on his hind legs, but his body kept tensing back up, until finally he managed to shake it off and get back up, standing tall to look stronger.

"Great job Grovyle," Brendan said, proud of his pokémon. "Now lets take her out with bullet seed!"

Grovyle began firing a barrage of green seed-like projectiles that would bounce off any surface they hit towards Liechi and Hiroka.

"Thundershock Liechi," Hiroka said.

Her Pikachu's red cheeks flashed a white like before, only this time they launched a powerful jolt of electricity, tearing through the bullet seed attack and striking Grovyle. It hissed and screeched in pain as the electric attack engulfed its entire body. When the attack finally stopped, Grovyle fell down, partially charred, unable to battle.

"Grovyle, return," Brendan said as he called his pokémon back into its pokéball. He looked at the ball both disappointed and confused as to why he lost. "But how?" he asked. Grovyle's a grass type. He should be able to resist moves like thundershock."

"Yeah, but you forget Brendan," Chris explained, "Hiroka has more experience than you. She's a coördinator, remember?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Brendan asked confused.

"You can become a coördinator at 17 so long as you have someone older to travel with you," Chris stated.

"I spent last year traveling Sinnoh, competing in their contests," Hiroka said.

"Meaning you just challenged someone who's a year ahead of you in training. Good job," Chris said sarcastically.

Brendan scratched his head, disappointed in his loss, but willing to accept it. Hiroka walked over to him and held out her hand.

"So are we going to be friends now, or are you going to keep being a creep?" she asked.

Brendan smiled and shook her hand. "I'm a man of my word Hiroka. I won't bother you anymore. But next time we battle you won't get so lucky," he said in a joking tone.

"Yes I will," she said back to him.

Freeman now joined us on the upper deck, looking refreshed and fully awake with his Mudkip, Blue on his shoulders.

"Morning guys," he said.

Blue also gave a friendly greeting.

"Hey Freeman, you just missed it," Chris said.

"Miss what?" Freeman asked.

"Me and Liechi just kicked Brendan's ass!" Hiroka said victoriously, throwing up a peace sign. Her Pikachu did the same.

"Good job," Freeman said smiling. "Sorry I missed it."

"You didn't miss much," Brendan said, not wanting to stay on the subject too long.

Everyone walked to the front of the ship where they all looked over the horizon, waiting for Dewford Island to come into view. Suddenly, out of the corner of Freeman's eye, he saw another ship sailing in a similar direction. Only it looked more like a battleship, and on the side was a distinct A that slightly resembled bones. It was the mark of Team Aqua. When Brendan saw it, he got a little more angry, remembering the last time he fought against them in Rustboro City.

"What are they doing here?" Brendan asked.

"Who knows, but it's probably best if we stay out of their way," Chris suggested.

Everyone agreed, and continued watching the ship sail. Only now, it was turning towards them, making everyone a little more nervous.

(**North**'s PoV)

We're headed out on our mission now to raid Team Magma's research base on Dewford Island. A few of my men were pulled from my squad to go on another raid, but with this battleship, those Magma dogs shouldn't stand a chance.

"Admin North sir," one of my men said approaching me.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Our men have spotted a small speed boat heading towards Dewford Island in the same direction as us sir."

"We're going near a big tourist spot. Odds are, we'll see some boats going by," I replied to them.

"It could be a scout from Team Magma sir. If they are, they might give away our position. Should we sink them?" he asked.

Not wanting to take any chances to of failing the mission, I gave him the consent. "Fire torpedos at them, and take any survivors as prisoners."

"Yes sir," he said to me, saluting me and signaling some men on the other side of the ship to do what I said.

The ship turned, facing their boat head on, and from the surface of the water, I could see the faint shape of two torpedos heading for the ship. Within a matter of seconds, it them, exploding a massive hole in the side of their hull, and causing the boat to sink. Using a pair of binoculars, I could faintly see several people jumping overboard before it sank completely in the water. We headed over there with nets ready to capture the survivors.

(**Chris**'s PoV)

As the Team Aqua battleship turned towards us, I saw a brief force coming out of the front of their vessel as two projectiles rocketed towards us. Recognizing these as torpedos I grabbed a hold of the nearest railing.

"Everyone brace for impact!" I shouted to everyone else.

We tried holding on for dear life to the rails, but the force of the torpedos hitting our ship threw us all back. Hiroka was knocked overboard into the water, prompting Freeman to jump in after her. Mr. Briney ran out from his quarters with his Wingull following him, flying around squawking with fear.

"Everyone get in the lifeboats," he ordered us. But to his disappointment, the side of the boat the lifeboats had been on was also the side that was hit. Now they were in several pieces of broken wood and torn rope drifting in the water with a large chunk of the hull.

"It's no use, everyone abandon ship," I cried out.

Brendan jumped overboard without hesitation, and Naomi, who was terrified to death, clung to my leg. I picked her up with my arms and prepared to jump overboard, but waited to see if Mr. Briney would get off as well. He tried running to the same side as us, but the ship began to capsize, breaking in half, causing him to trip and fall. The half he was on quickly sank, with my half to be next. I held onto the rail, hanging by one arm with Naomi in the other. The ship turned up vertical and began sinking down.

"It's okay Naomi, we're going to make it," I said trying not to lose confidence.

She gripped my neck tightly with her eyes closed, too scared to look.

When we went down with the ship, they weight and force of it dragged us down underwater. I had tried to hold my breath, but the pull forced the air out of my mouth, and as I sank deeper, I began to struggle. Still I held tight to Naomi, but I could feel that she had already passed out. I had finally broke free from the ships pull and desperately tried to reach the surface. But as my lungs collapsed and my vision blurred, I knew I wasn't going to make it in time. I could barely see the light shimmering from the surface above, and prayed for any hope of reaching it.

It was then that I felt a hand grab me, and something large come out from under me. I turned and saw Mr. Briney, still holding his breath and riding on a Wailmer. We rose at a rapid rate and made it to the surface in time.

I quickly gasped for some well needed air, as my vision returned and my lungs began pumping again. I looked at Naomi, who twitched, still unconscious, but still breathing.

"Thank's Mr. Briney," I said grateful for my rescue.

"That's Captain Briney," he said, cheerful for our survival.

"I thought you said you weren't a captain," I said.

"But I went down with my ship didn't I," he laughed.

As bad of a pun as it was, I still laughed along side him. We rode on his Wailmer, which I just now noticed how massive it was, to the rest of my friends. Hiroka and Freeman were staying together, and Brendan had managed to stay afloat. But now our hopes were lost when the shadow of the assailant ship loomed over us. Nets were brought down to pull us up. We would have tried swimming away, but we were no where near shore, so we had no choice but to be taken prisoner.

We were thrown up onto the ship's main deck wear a bunch of men in Team Aqua uniforms surrounded us. Mr. Briney returned his Wailmer to its pokéball, and Freeman returned his Mudkip. Something about these guys looked familiar. Haven't I seen them somewhere before?

**"These are the same people who fought Team Magma with us,"** Naomi answered me. **"I recognize their psychic energy."**

While I was happy to know Naomi had finally come to, I paid more attention to the pressing matters at hand. Just then, I saw their leader, North Gun walk out from among them to us.

"And just where do you people think you're going," he said to us. He then saw and recognized me from among my friends. "You again?"

"Hey, how's it been Mr. North," I said trying to sound friendly in hopes that he would let us go.

"You know this guy Chris?" Brendan asked me.

"Shut up," North said to Brendan. "Now I'll ask one more time. What are you doing here?"

"We were just on our way to Dewford Island," I tried to explain.

"What about you? What are you doing here?" Brendan asked angrily.

"None of your business kid," North replied, annoyed by Brendan. "And aren't you the kid that caused trouble for us in Rustboro?"

"That's me. So what do you want?" Brendan replied.

"Shut up Brendan, before you get us killed," Hiroka scolded him.

"Well you know what? Now you and your friends can help us out with a little trouble as payment for your interference," North said. "I'm down a couple of men, and you kids look like you could fit the job just fine."

"We'll never work with the likes of common thugs such as yourself," Mr. Briney barked.

North pulled out his revolver and shot Mr. Briney in the chest, blasting out a spurt of blood on the deck behind him, and causing the old man to keel over dead. A pool of blood formed around him, and we backed away in fear and horror.

"So does anyone else have an objection?" North said pointing his gun at us.

Naomi trembled in my arms crying out of fear, but too choked up to make any noise. I looked at my other friends and knew that if we were to ever get out of this alive, we'd have to do as he says. I stepped forward and agreed to help him. Freeman and Brendan seeing me do this joined in with Hiroka nervously stepping up shortly after.

"Good. Men, suit these people up and fill them in on the mission details. Welcome to Team Aqua."

**Chris: Okay then, just leave us on another cliffhanger.**

**Freeman: It's how 1001 Arabian Nights worked.**

**Chris: Except that was a matter of life and death.**

**Me: Well here it's a matter of keeping people interested. Besides, it helps make the story line flow a little better.**

**Hiroka: Can we just finish this and be done?**

**Me: Fine. If you like this story, you can help us out by favoriting and following this story. Also, please feel free to leave your comments or ideas down in the box below. If you want, you can try writing your own character that we may pick to be in the story. Rules for that are in the author's profile, and you can find it there. And please don't leave any rude or negative reviews in the comments below. I appreciate it.**

**Naomi: Stay with us, for the next chapter of Pokémon: Christopher and Naomi.**


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